Charges against a man accused of attempted murder in Okanagan Falls have been dropped.
Richard Graham was initially facing six charges relating to a shooting incident on Aug. 6, 2022. At the time of the incident, several residents reported hearing gunshots near the corner of Maple Street and 10th Avenue that night.
RCMP later confirmed that officers responded and found a female victim suffering from serious injuries.
“With the assistance of the Southeast District Emergency Response Team, a male suspect was located and taken into custody without incident,” read the BC RCMP Communication Services release in August 2022.
BC Prosecution Service confirmed in an email to Global News that the charges against Graham were stayed but did not specifically say why.
“Charges were stayed in this case when the Crown Counsel with conduct of the file concluded the charge assessment standard was no longer met. This occurred at the commencement of the preliminary inquiry,” said BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Dan McLaughlin.
McLaughlin added that Crown must satisfy a two-part test in each case: whether there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, whether the public interest requires a prosecution.
“This test applies throughout the prosecution. If, at any time, the Crown concludes the standard is no longer met the prosecution will be terminated or ‘stayed’. That is what occurred in this case,” said McLaughlin.
According to court documents, the alleged shooting victim is Jodie Walker.
She is reportedly to be the same woman who was Crown’s star witness in the unrelated trial of Afshin Ighani, who was accused of kidnapping Walker and another person back in 2017.
Ighani was accused of fleeing the scene of a shooting before hijacking a vehicle and holding Walker hostage. He was then subject to a Canada-wide warrant and three-day long man hunt before being arrested in Princeton.
However, when Walker took the witness stand she claimed to have no memory of the incident. Ighani was later acquitted of all charges.
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