A Kelowna man charged with the high-profile killing of his ex-wife last summer is facing another charge of breaching a non-communication order while he was in custody.

James Edward Plover was scheduled to make a first appearance in a Kelowna courtroom today, July 21, having been charged April 30 for breaching a non-communication order.

Court documents don’t say who Plover allegedly contacted, but the communication took place in September 2025 when Plover was in custody, having been charged for the killing of his estranged wife, Bailey McCourt.

Plover is said to have attacked and killed McCourt with a hammer in a Kelowna parking lot in the afternoon of July 4, 2025. He was originally charged with second-degree murder, which was then upgraded to first-degree murder. McCourt’s friend Carrie Wiebe was also injured in the attack.

McCourt’s death prompted advocates to call for bail reform, when it emerged that Plover had been convicted but then released from custody just hours before her death.

Last November, he was later sentenced to one year in jail for assault by strangling and uttering threats in that case. The identity of the victim is covered under a publication ban.

Plover and the victim had become embroiled in a heated argument and he choked her. At one point he destroyed a dining room table with a machete and expressed “suicidal ideations.”

Bailey McCourt was killed on July 4, 2025. FACEBOOK/Bailey McCourt

The daylight public killing of McCourt caused public outrage and a push to tighten Canada’s bail laws.

Last month, Bill C-255, which is more commonly known as Bailey’s Law, came into place.

Bailey’s Law introduces a series of reforms aimed at addressing intimate partner violence, and was spearheaded by Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola Conservative MP Frank Caputo.

The Department of Justice Canada describe it as one of the most consequential updates to Canada’s Criminal Code in generations.

The law makes femicide first-degree murder, and creates a new offence of coercive control in intimate relationships, along with numerous other changes.

Plover’s murder trial is scheduled for September 2027.