Accused in Edmonton Chinatown murder opens for judge during preliminary hearing

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Warning: This story contains references to suicide. If you need help, the AHS Mental Health Helpline can be reached at 1-877-303-2642 or Suicide Helpline at 9-8-8.

Justin Bone sat in the prisoner’s box, stacks of legal documents balanced on the wooden barrier in front of him.

As Judge Avril Inglis listened, Bone spoke at length about his life and legal troubles since being charged in a shocking double homicide that rocked Edmonton’s Chinatown.

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“I don’t want to be alive,” Bone said, discussing his struggles as a maximum-security inmate at the Edmonton Detention Centre. “I’m there every day, not wanting to wake up and not get help.”

Of the circumstances leading up to the murders, he said: “I’m thrown out on the street, homeless, by the RCMP, illegally. I did everything I had to do.”

“Mission of Hope was all they said they had.”

“The only person who helped me was a dealer.”

Bone was in the Court of King’s Bench on Thursday for a preliminary hearing to save the November dates scheduled for his second-degree murder trial in the deaths of Hung Trang and Ban Phuc Hoang.

Bone is self-represented after firing four legal aid lawyers. He is pursuing a Fisher claim, a rare legal maneuver that allows a judge to order private counsel to be funded at rates above those offered by legal aid.

Bone plans to hire Tom Engel, a defense attorney and police critic who specializes in corrections law. To succeed, he must convince Inglis that Engel is the only lawyer who can ensure he will receive a fair trial.

“I may look like a criminal, but I want to do the right thing, not only for myself, but as a person in Edmonton, Alberta,” he said. “I have legitimate reasons that need to be seen and looked at.”

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Trang, 64, and Hoang, 61, were beaten to death on May 18, 2022. Their deaths stunned Edmontonians and led to new efforts to revitalize Chinatown, the funding of a neighborhood policing and clashes between local and provincial politicians.

The CBC later revealed that Bone had been dumped in the city by RCMP officers three days before the murders, despite a court order barring him from being in the city unsupervised.

Bone had been remanded in custody for another crime but was released to a home in Alberta Beach. He was transported to Edmonton after RCMP received a complaint that Bone had threatened the homeowner.

Bone prepared an affidavit for Thursday’s hearing arguing why Engel was his attorney. However, he said, after reading the Crown’s arguments, he realized he needed to include additional evidence in the case.

Bone said, based on case law, he was “very concerned” the court would reject his request. On several occasions, he became troubled by his ability to articulate himself.

Inglis offered words of encouragement each time.

“You’re doing very well,” she said. “What impressed me is that you read the materials prepared by Crown counsel, understood them clearly and took the steps you needed to improve your claim.”

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Bone also asked Inglis to do something about conditions at the detention center, claiming he was receiving inadequate mental health care.

“This place has ruined my life,” he said. “This place abused me in ways I was never right about.”

He told Inglis that he tried to kill himself earlier this year.

“Oh, Mr. Bone, I’m so sorry to hear that,” she replied. “You say you’re not getting the help you need at ERC… Your well-being is important to me, it really is.”

However, she said she is “not all-powerful” and “not the boss of anyone or anything” and can only order corrections officials to do something under certain circumstances.

She said completing the Fisher application and keeping the data in November is essential.

“You don’t want to delay that trial because it will only increase your time in custody.”

Bone already had court dates in a separate home invasion case. He was scheduled to stand trial on those charges last month, but did not proceed because he did not have a lawyer.