Murder suspect Alex Xu will seek bail pending his retrial for the killing of his mother, which is set for more than a year from now.
Bail hearing scheduled
Defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk appeared in Calgary Court of King's Bench on Friday to set a day-long bail hearing for June 26. A mistrial was declared on May 13 in Xu's first trial when jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked. Fedorchuk said Xu's retrial before a second jury is scheduled for four weeks beginning Sept. 13, 2027.
Details of the crime
Xu, 23, repeatedly confessed to killing his mother, Alice (Jinying) Xu, in the early morning hours of June 30, 2023, between two homes across the street from the Foothills Medical Centre. Xu's parents had taken him to the hospital because they were worried about his consumption of LSD the previous evening. But the accused became frustrated and walked out of the emergency room with his mother following after him.
The central issue for jurors in the first trial was Xu's intent when he bludgeoned his mother to death with a large rock. The Calgary man testified he was experiencing hallucinations after consuming two tabs of LSD and believed his mother was a demon, similar to ones depicted in a Japanese horror series called Uzumaki.
He said his mother grabbed him by the arm as they stood between the two houses. "I looked at her face and it was monstrously deformed in a spiral-like pattern," Xu testified. "I screamed out loud ... I punched where her face should be, she'd fallen over, lost her balance. I picked up a nearby rock and I struck her head twice."
He told Fedorchuk he felt "an immense visceral fear" when he saw her distorted face. "That's what my mind perceived, like a demonic entity had just come out of nowhere and was going to eat my soul."
Interpreter needed
Fedorchuk asked that a Mandarin interpreter be ordered for the bail hearing as his client's proposed surety will require a translator.
