Halifax pair’s trial on murder, accessory charges set for late 2025

A Halifax couple charged in the March 2022 shooting death of Treyvhon Bradshaw will go to trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in the fall of 2025.

Makayle Larry James Skinner, 27, is accused of second-degree murder in the killing, while Jasyhia Simone Watters, 26, faces a charge of being an accessory after the fact to murder by allegedly trying to help her boyfriend escape justice.

Skinner and Watters were committed to stand trial after a preliminary inquiry in Halifax provincial court last month.

Dates for their jury trial were set Thursday, when Skinner appeared in Supreme Court in Halifax in person with lawyer Adrian Forsythe, who phoned in on behalf of colleague Nathan Gorham.  

Lawyer Geoff Newton called in for Watters, who was not present.

The court offered counsel trial dates in the fall of 2024, but Forsythe said Gorham is not available until September 2025.

Forsythe explained that Gorham is booked up with nine other jury trials in New Brunswick and Ontario until then. Seven of those trials are murder cases, he said.

Justice Peter Rosinski scheduled this trial for 25 days beginning Oct. 6, 2025.

Bradshaw, 25, was shot in the 2100 block of Gottingen Street in Halifax on March 18, 2022, at about 2:35 a.m. and died in hospital.

Skinner was arrested in June 2022 and charged with first-degree murder. Watters was picked up by police on the accessory charge two weeks later.

The charge against Skinner was reduced to second-degree murder at the end of the preliminary inquiry.

Watters was granted bail in Supreme Court in July 2022. Skinner has not applied for bail.

The pair are banned from having contact with each other and 10 potential Crown witnesses.