Accused in Pat Stay homicide makes court appearance

The man accused of killing battle rapper Pat Stay made his first court appearance related to the case on Monday.

Adam Joseph Drake, 31, is charged with first-degree murder. His appearance in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax was by video link.

Drake was remanded into custody and will next appear in court Oct. 7 for a status update and to set dates for a preliminary inquiry.He was arrested in Tantallon, N.S., on Saturday.

In 2016, Drake was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Tyler Keizer.

Keizer was found shot to death in a parking lot at the corner of Falkland and Gottingenstreets, close to the police station. The charge was dropped against Drake last year after the Crown determined there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction.

In 2013, when Drake was 22, he was charged with attempted murder after a man was shot when he walked out of the Red Fox Bar and Grill on Bayers Road. Halifax Regional Police arrested him three months later at a home on Hunter Street, but the charge was dropped.

Downtown Dartmouth remembers Pat Stay

2 years ago

Duration 3:23

A funeral was held for battle rapper Pat Stay over the weekend. Afterward, Portland Street turned into a roadside memorial. Restaurants and bars stayed open later to allow people to gather. Colleen Jones has the story.

Funeral held over the weekend

Stay, 36, was found stabbed just after midnight Sept. 4 on Lower Water Street. The father of two died in hospital.

Friends remembered him at a wake and funeral on the weekend. They described him as being kind and humble and having aquick wit.

Verena Rizg, a spoken word artist and personal friend of Stay, told CBC's Information Morninglast week that she met Stay years ago through friends.

"You have this battle rapper who, on stage, comes across as this very strong, ferocious-type being but then, in person, anyone who knows him would tell you that he's a gentle giant," Rizg said.

"He didn't want to be seen as too much of a softy, but he would always speak about that, even on his social media about how much he cared about people."