The three adults - two males and one female - accused in a recent car-jacking incident near Morningside made their first appearance in Ponoka Provincial Court last week.
Isiah Riel Rider, 19, along with Allan Donny Rain, 18, and Lesa Nora Okeynan-Rain, 19 - all of Calgary - appeared on Friday, Oct. 30, via closed circuit television (CCTV) from the Edmonton Remand Centre to answer to numerous charges stemming from the incident that took place on Friday, Oct. 23.
Rider is facing a total of 21 charges including two counts of robbery, three counts of assault, unlawful confinement, theft of a motor vehicle, evading police and possession of a prohibited weapon. Rain and Okeynan-Rain are both facing eight charges related to the incident that include robbery, assault and unlawful confinement.
No pleas were entered on any of the charges and both Rider and Rain will remain in custody until they next appear in court on Friday, Nov. 20, where Rain will have his bail spoken to. Okeynan-Rain was released on $5,000 no-cash bail, but ordered to be back in front of the judge on that same day along with obeying several conditions.
Rider will stay behind bars as he has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 26-year-old Calgary woman back on Oct. 11.
In this latest incident, it is alleged the three, along with two female youths who have yet to make their first court appearance, were in a truck heading north from Calgary in the early morning hours that day when the vehicle went into the east ditch of Highway 2 just north of the Morningside exit.
A small car then stopped in an effort to lend any assistance, when the five individuals jumped out of the ditch and attempted to take the car, assaulting the two males and one female as well as issuing threats to shoot them if the car wasn’t handed over.
The car’s driver tossed the keys away and all of the occupants managed to fight off their assailants, who fled into a nearby field as soon as police began to arrive on the scene.
Rain and Okeynan-Rain were tracked down by Ponoka RCMP in the field, while Rider was taken down by Maskwacis RCMP following a brief chase and the implementation of a spike belt to stop the stolen car he was seen driving. The two female youth were also arrested by RCMP later that day.
During their investigation, officers did find a high-powered rifle in the field.