The man accused of killing New Westminster residents Jill Lyons and Karen Nabors nearly one year ago appeared in court on Friday for a brief arraignment hearing.
Surrey's Sarbjit Bains appeared in New Westminster court on July 25 via teleconference from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, where he's been remanded since his arrest back in January.
The 32-year-old looked restless and bored even, leaning back in his chair as he, his counsel and Crown waited for the judge to arrive.
Once the judge arrived, the hearing passed quickly with both Crown and the defence asking to reschedule the arraignment to a later date in light of the "significant amount of disclosure" related to the case.
The judge accepted their motion and moved the arraignment to Sept. 3 at 9:30 a.m. in New Westminster provincial court following disclosure of all related evidence in the case, which the Crown explained was a large amount because of the complex nature of the case.
It's been nearly one year since Lyons and Nabors were murdered.
Forty-five-year-old Lyons was found dead in her apartment shortly before 10 p.m. on Aug. 12. Thirteen days later Nabors, 48, was also found dead in her apartment - both women were living in the same building in the 200 block of 11th Street.
At the time, investigators with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, who had taken over the cases, told The Record the cause of deaths was unclear and further toxicology reports were needed to assess if the women had in fact been murdered.
After almost five months of silence from police, the homicide team announced at a press conference on Jan. 6 that a suspect had been arrested and two charges of first-degree murder had been laid against Bains.
Both motive and cause of death remain unknown at this time as investigators with the homicide team wouldn't provide any details once the accused was arrested for fear it could damage the court proceedings currently underway.
