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Court records show Bowen has a long history of criminal behavior, including alleged crimes in the Chinatown area
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June 17, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 4 minutes reading • 5 comments Justin Bone, 36, was charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of Hung Trang and Ban Fook Hoang. Photo from Facebook
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The man accused of killing two members of the Chinatown community in Edmonton briefly appeared in court on Friday, his last in the long history of the judiciary.
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A report filed after a previous conviction said Justin Francis Bone’s crime was rooted in his troubled childhood.
Bone, 36, is accused of fatally beating Hung Trang and Ban Fuq Hoang out of business in the Chinatown area, where they worked on May 18. Both men were in their 60s and their deaths sparked public protest, including Justice Minister Tyler Shandro’s order to the Edmonton City Council create a “public safety plan” for the city’s core.
A CBC report later revealed that Bowne – who had been acquitted of another crime – had been left by RCMP officers in West Edmonton three days before Trang and Hoang were killed, in breach of court, that he was not in town. Edmonton unattended.
Bone appeared via video from the Edmonton Detention Center on Friday morning for routinely appearing in pre-trial proceedings. Defense attorney David Wolsey called for the case to be adjourned until June 30 to reveal evidence from the Crown.
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Bone – wearing an orange corrective jumpsuit with a shaved head – moved back and forth on his feet in the video conferencing cage, speaking only to confirm that he could hear the video.
Defendant, previously arrested for B&E in the Chinatown area
Court records show that Bone has a long history of criminal behavior, including alleged crimes in the Chinatown area.
Between 2005 and 2018 – when his criminal record was compiled for a pre-conviction report – Bone amassed more than 30 convictions, ranging from disobeying court orders to escaping legal arrest to assault with a gun.
Bowne’s longest sentence during that period was three years for a robbery sentence in 2009. His other sentences were measured in days and months.
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In the fall of 2018, Bone was convicted of two counts of sexual intercourse and sentenced to two years in prison.
Following this conviction, he served a sentence for assault causing bodily harm, mischief and failure to comply with a probation order.
Photos of Ban Fook Hoang, 61, and Hung Trang, 64, two members of the Chinatown community in Edmonton killed, are on display in Chinatown, Edmonton on June 1, 2022. Photo by Larry Wong / Postmedia
Other charges against Bone were dismissed, including a raft of eight charges – including aggravated assault – left by a judge in November 2020, and a separate charge of causing bodily harm remained the following year.
Most recently, on May 4, Crown prosecutors withdrew a July 2021 indictment accusing Bone of burglarying a block of flats at 10,600 Street 96, one block from Chinatown’s main stretch.
By the time Hoang and Trang were killed, Bone was facing another charge of breaking into a 106 Avenue apartment in McCauley. The trial on this charge is scheduled for December.
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Gladue’s report details the difficult upbringing
Following his sexual assault sentences in 2018, Bone requested a Gladue report, a type of document created following a 1999 Supreme Court ruling instructing courts to consider alternatives to imprisonment for indigenous criminals.
The reports describe in detail the ways in which government policies, such as schools and foster care, may have contributed to the criminal behavior of indigenous peoples.
According to the report, Bone did not know about his specific indigenous heritage. However, Uncle told the author of the report that the Bone family originally belonged to the first Papaschase nation. The nation signed Treaty 6 in 1877 and received a reserve in the Mill Woods area, which descendants claim was systematically dismantled to make way for the railroad and the growing city.
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Bone was born in Lac La Bish. According to the report, he never knew his father, while his mother – who was sometimes homeless – could not be found for an interview.
The uncle told the writer that Bone’s grandmother was attending a boarding school and that Bone’s mother and her siblings had been arrested by the government at an early age. He claims that Bone’s family moved frequently to avoid employees with child services.
Bone said he was abused by his stepfather by being beaten with electric cables, sticks and wooden spoons. Drinking, drug use and domestic violence are common in the home. Bone said the family was expelled frequently and lived for some time on a school bus and in a greenhouse. Bone describes selling his toys outside one of their apartments to make money.
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At about age 12, Bone began using marijuana and drinking alcohol regularly. He finished school until 9th grade and worked in construction when he was not in prison. At one point, he fell and injured his back and “self-medicates so he can continue to work,” the report said. Bone said he used crack cocaine and methamphetamine, which he said contributed to some of his behavior.
After Trang and Hoang were killed, Mayor Amarjit Sohi criticized the provincial government, saying Bone had been released on orders to visit a medical facility where there were no beds available.
Shandro’s office later challenged Sohi’s statement, claiming that an “alternative addiction treatment facility without a waiting list” had been provided, without giving details.
In 2018, Bone told the author of the Gladue report that he had previously tried to enter drug treatment programs, but was either on the waiting list or lost his place because he was in prison.
“Mr Bone hopes to be admitted to a substance abuse treatment program once he is released from prison,” the report said in 2018.
He added that Bone “now realizes that he is able to change the outcome of his life.”
jwakefield@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jonnywakefield
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