A man accused of shooting a Fruitvale woman in the head more than two and a half years ago, leaving her with life-altering injuries, is behind bars after missing a court appearance.
Brenden Randall Rothweiler, who was born in 1986, is charged with aggravated assault, discharging a firearm with intent to wound or disfigure, and illegal storage of a firearm. The offences are alleged to have taken place in Trail on March 27, 2023.
RCMP said a 33-year-old woman was left that day at the emergency department entrance of Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital with a near-fatal gunshot wound. She survived, but has life-long disabilities. Police said the person who dropped her off left without speaking to hospital staff.
Police arrested a Nelson man in downtown Trail later that morning on suspicion of attempted murder, but he was released after being held overnight.
Police forwarded charge recommendations to Crown counsel two months later, but charges were not laid against Rothweiler until November 2024. Rothweiler was then arrested again and released on bail.
He is charged with breaching his release order on Aug. 28 of this year in Kamloops. He was supposed to appear in court on Sept. 22, but failed to show. A bench warrant was then issued for his arrest, and he was taken back into custody a week later.
Rothweiler has since made a couple of court appearances and will be back before a judge on Oct. 29 in Kelowna to fix a date for the continuation of his bail hearing.
He was originally expected to have a preliminary hearing in December, but the Crown opted in August to proceed by direct indictment, so the case will go directly to trial. No dates have yet been fixed.
