Dennis Hart was charged shortly after Calgary police were called to a residence in Bowness in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, 2023
Homicide suspect Dennis George Hart was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a city man in a northwest Calgary home.
Justice Karl Wilberg agreed with Crown prosecutors James Thomas and Kenna Morris there was sufficient evidence to order Hart to stand trial before a Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury on a charge of second-degree murder.
Defence counsel Robin McIntyre did not oppose her client’s committal, conceding the prosecution had exceeded the low bar for establishing a case should proceed to trial.
At the beginning of Hart’s preliminary inquiry on June 4, Wilberg imposed a publication ban on the evidence called by Thomas and Morris during the hearing.
The prosecutors called 10 witnesses, including one who needed to be brought to court under warrant, over the course of the five-day hearing.
Police said they responded around 3:25 a.m. to reports of a disturbance at a residence in the 7700 block of 41 Ave. N.W. where they found a man who appeared to have stab wounds, they said in a news release.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene and investigators determined he was killed during a fight, police reported.
Two men were taken into custody at the scene, police said, but it was later believed one was a witness and was not involved in the altercation.
Hart, 52, was subsequently charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Sean Micheal Barber, 54.
If convicted as charged, Hart would receive an automatic life sentence with parole ineligibility to be set at between 10 and 25 years.
He remains in custody pending trial.
He is scheduled to appear in Court of King’s Bench on Aug. 30 for the purpose of setting a trial date.