Drug squad members, Robert Baltovich and Jane Creba case on list

The new year promises to be busy in Toronto's imposing Superior Court on University Ave., as major trials, some long delayed, are set to begin.

The biggest event is the long-awaited second trial of Robert Baltovich, 42, accused of murdering his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain, 22, whose body was never found after she disappeared in June 1990.

Baltovich was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992 and served eight years of a life term before being freed on bail pending appeal. In 2004 the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned his conviction and ordered a new trial. Proceedings were to begin last October but trial judge David Watt was promoted to the appeal court, necessitating the appointment of a new judge.

Justice David McCombs has taken over and jury selection is set to begin in late March.

Another major trial that was put off until 2008 involves three Canadian reserve soldiers charged in the beating death of a homeless man.

Paul Croutch, 59, was killed on Aug. 31, 2005, as he slept on a park bench near Moss Park Armoury. Brian Deganis, 23, Jeffery Hall, 24, and Mountaz Ibrahim, 25, are charged with second-degree murder. Their trial is set to start Feb. 25.

Meanwhile, jury selection is tentatively set for February on extortion and assault charges against six members of an elite drug squad, two of whom have since retired. The trial for retired staff sergeant John Schertzer and constables Steven Correia, Raymond Pollard, Richard Benoit, Ned Maodus and Joseph Miched is still in legal arguments covered by a publication ban.

The trial continues for Xuan Peng, 35, charged with second-degree murder in the July 2004 bathtub drowning of her 4-year-old autistic daughter Scarlett. A mistrial was declared in November. The trial started again Dec. 10.

Jury selection is expected to begin in February for the trial of Craig Scotland, 23, and Aslyn Augustus Walker, 27, charged with first-degree murder in the December 2004 shooting of Klempton Howard, 24, a youth mentor at a Danforth and Jones Aves. area housing complex. The second-degree murder trial of Nicholas Crowdis, 23, accuKsed of using a brick-like object to smash the head of a promising young scholar and hockey player, is scheduled for May. Michael Serba, 25, a student at Vermont's Norwich University, was attacked in November 2006 after he left a bar in Bloor West Village in the early hours.

The trial of Ivan Mendez-Romero, 38, charged with first-degree murder in the October 2004 strangling of gay club owner Janko Naglic, 58, is tentatively scheduled to begin in February. The victim, who owned The Barn/The Stables on Church St., was once the accused's lover.

The second-degree murder trial of John Magno, co-owner of Woodbine Building Supplies on Danforth Ave., begins in late February. One arsonist died and a second was badly burned in the $4 million Christmas 2001 blaze. Adrian Roks was sentenced to life in prison in November after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the fire.

Set to begin in February is the trial of three of the accused arrested in the Project Pathfinder probe. Tyshan Riley, the alleged leader of the notorious Galloway Boys gang, along with Jason Wisdom and Phil Atkins face first-degree murder charges in the death of Brenton Charlton and the attempted murder of Leonard Bell during a drive-by shooting in March 2004.

Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing resumes this month for seven adults charged with murder or manslaughter in the death of Jane Creba, 15, and the wounding of six others on Boxing Day 2005.