Brian Lancaster looked on from the prisoner’s dock on Thursday as the preliminary hearing for his looming second-degree murder trial began in Barrie.
Lancaster, 37, of Orillia, is charged in the killing of another Orillia resident, Kyle Farrows, who was 25 when he died 11 days before Christmas last year.
The proceedings continue on Friday, with another day scheduled for later this month. A publication ban is in place covering any evidence presented in court during the preliminary hearing.
Also charged in Farrows’s death is Mackenzie Harrod of Midland, who was 18 when she was charged.
Harrod’s case is before the courts and she is currently out on bail.
Lancaster is no stranger to the courts or being in custody. He was sentenced to five years in prison for a 2015 sexual assault and burglary against a 15-year-old girl.
He was given day parole in 2019 and full parole two years later.
Farrows was found dead shortly before midnight by police on Dec. 14, 2023, in or near his apartment on Andrew Street in Orillia. According to media reports at the time, he was stabbed, but neither police nor the Crown’s office has spoken to his cause of death.
