Update: A jury panel has been selected from 100 people called for the trial of John Ike Koopmans.

Following the selection, the jurors were sent home. The trial slated to start Feb. 23.

(Castanet)

At the end of a preliminary inquiry in Penticton for John Ike Koopmans a judge determined there was enough evidence for the accsed to stand trial on three serious criminal charges before the court.

Koopmans of Princeton is charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, stemming from the incident that took place on a rural Similkameen valley property on March 30, 2013.

Background – April 2nd 2013

A 49-year-old Princeton man is to appear in Penticton provincial court this morning on murder and attempted-murder charges related to the weekend shootings that rocked the Similkameen community.

Police on Monday released the names of a man and woman shot to death Saturday night. The bodies of Robert Keith Wharton, 44, and Rosemary Fox, 32, were found at about 9:45 p.m. inside a building on a rural property off Old Hedley Road.

A third victim, a 48-year-old Princeton man, remains in hospital in stable condition.
The suspect, whose name has not yet been released, was arrested Sunday without incident at a home in Princeton. He faces two charges of second-degree murder and one charge of attempted murder.
“The incident unfolded when the Princeton RCMP received a report around 9:35 Saturday evening of an injured male being at this property on Old Hedley Road,” police said. “Upon police attendance Ñ and looking at the property, the buildings and residence at this is when two other individuals were found deceased in one of the buildings.”

Princeton RCMP received assistance from emergency response team members and the RCMP’s southeast district major crimes unit, and they gathered information that led to the suspect’s arrest.