Jury selection to open North Okanagan murder trial

Jury selection is scheduled to begin today (Feb. 26) for a North Okanagan murder trial.

Jevon Daniel Smith — born in 1975 — is accused of second degree murder in the shooting death of Dakota Samoleski in Spallumcheen on Sept. 20, 2021.

Samoleski’s body was found at a rural site on Back Enderby Road, and Smith was arrested a few hours later near Armstrong. No other details about the death have been released by RCMP.

The trial is being held in B.C. Supreme Court in Kelowna before Justice Gary Weatherill. The first order of business will be to select a 12-person jury.

Smith was ordered to stand trial without a preliminary inquiry after the Crown decided to proceed by direct indictment.

Preliminary inquiries are normally held when an accused chooses to have a trial in B.C. Supreme Court. The hearings, held in provincial court, and are used by the court to decide if there is enough evidence to convict the accused and to proceed to a trial.