Jury has begun deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of Joelon Verma

KELOWNA, B.C. – A jury in Kelowna, B.C., has begun deliberations on the fate of Joelon Verma, the man accused of the first-degree murder of Brittany Irving.

Verma is charged in connection to the April 2010 drug-related death of Irving who the jury has heard was a marijuana trafficker.

Verma’s lawyer told the trial the Crown didn’t link the man to the murder or even accurately indicate when the 24-year-old woman was killed.

Numerous witnesses were called over the six-week trial in a case that even the judge said was circumstantial.

The Crown alleges Verma lured Irving to a wooded area near Kelowna and shot her in a plan to steal more than 20 kilograms of marijuana.

Irving’s family members wept in the court’s gallery as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allison Beams delivered her final instructions to the jury. (CKFR)