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Trial date set for Princeton double murder

John Ike Koopmans is charged with two counts of murder and a single count of attempted murder.

A trial date has been set in the double-murder that occurred in Princeton last year.

John Ike Koopmans, 49 at the time of this arrest on March 31, 2013, is charged with two counts of murder and a single count of attempted murder. A five-week trial has been scheduled to begin on Feb. 16, 2015.

Koopmans is alleged to have shot and killed Robert Keith Wharton, 44, and Rosemary Fox, 32 and injured another man at a property on Old Hedley Road in Princeton on March 30, 2013.

In February Koopmans appeared in front of a provincial court judge in Penticton for a preliminary inquiry. Wearing glasses and a long goatee, he sat silent listening to witnesses and appeared to be taking notes while seated in the prisoners' dock. He has been in custody since his arrest.

In the days that followed the shootings, RCMP said Koopmans and the shooting victims all lived in the Princeton area and were known to each other.