Eric Mearow to stand trial on weapons charges

Following a one-day preliminary hearing Wednesday at the Sault Ste. Marie courthouse, Ontario Court Justice Romuald Kwolek committed the 33-year-old to stand trial on the various counts.

Through his lawyer Ariel Herscovitch, the accused elected to have his case heard by a judge of the Superior Court of Justice sitting without a jury.

Mearow, who is in custody, will return to court Aug. 29, to begin the process to set a trial date.

A publication ban prohibits reporting any evidence heard during the preliminary hearing.

Assistant Crown attorney Dana Peterson called three witnesses, all members of the city police service, to testify at the inquiry.

Mearow faces three counts of possession of a prohibited weapon (a loaded restricted firearm, brass knuckles and a flick knife),  three counts of storing the weapons in a careless manner and a single count of careless storage of .22-calibre ammunition.

The other charges include possession of a .22-calibre firearm without a licence, breach of an undertaking and four counts of possesing ammunition and weapons while prohibited.

The charges stem from a Jan. 11 police raid at a Simpson Street address where Mearow was residing.

Officers arrested six people, three men and three women, after executing a search warrant.

At the time, police said a loaded, stolen, semi-automatic .22-calibre handgun was located during the search.

The weapon had one live round in the chamber and nine additional rounds in the magazine, police indicated.

As well, the officers discovered six more rounds of ammunition and a small amount of fentanyl.

Mearow, one of three men convicted of manslaughter in the January 2011 slaying of Wesley Hallam, had been released from jail on Dec.1 after serving his sentence.

He was placed on a bail document while he awaited a court hearing on a Crown application for a peace bond that would impose restrictive conditions on him.

On Wednesday, Sandra Hallam, the mother of 29-year homicide victim who was decapitated, was in court throughout the preliminary hearing.

In the morning, prior to the commencement of the inquiry, she was sitting in the hallway, when Mearow, handcuffed and his feet in shackles, was escorted to the courtroom by two officers of the city police Emergency Services Unit and court security.

When she said something to him, he responded "f--k you."

Hallam then told him he was a goof, and Mearow replied "get a life."

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