EDMONTON -- A judge has given a 19-year-old man accused of killing a fellow student at an Edmonton-area school time to find a lawyer before he returns to court.
Dylan Thomas Pountney is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Jennifer Winkler at Christ the King School in Leduc, Alta.
Leduc Mayor Bob Young has said Winkler died in hospital on Monday after being stabbed.
Pountney, wearing an orange jumpsuit and a surgical mask, appeared before the judge via video as Winkler's sister sat in the courtroom.
Judge Jeffrey Champion says there is a publication ban on the identity of at least 11 people who are expected to take the witness stand.
Pountney is to next appear in Leduc provincial court on April 1.
Pountney was arrested a few hours after the attack on Monday in the backyard of a home close to the STAR Catholic school.
Peers have echoed statements by Mounties that Winkler and Pountney knew each other, but police have not commented on a possible motive or on whether the attack was targeted.
Another Christ the King student and friend of Pountney's said the families of the victim and the accused had known each other for several years, but that he never heard the 19-year-old talk about Winkler.
Despite the school division saying it had not seen any warning signs of a tragedy about to happen, Roux Royer told CTV News Edmonton he had been worried about his friend in the weeks before the attack.
"There was that bit of a drift towards the end and I sort of started getting a bad vibe from him. He was starting to become quite an unhealthy person to be around and I couldn’t make my life about that, so him and I did drift at the end," Royer said.
"I didn't really think anything else of it, I knew he was struggling but I didn't know how severely he was."
Winkler is remembered as an artistic and dearly loved girl.
A trauma support team has been helping students and staff at the school since the attack.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2021.
