Two ordinary men went to work on a spring morning in 2022 and never came home. Ban Phuc Hoang, 61, and Hung Trang, 64, were brutally beaten to death in separate, unprovoked attacks at their businesses in Edmonton's Chinatown. Their deaths sparked outrage, exposed massive gaps in the justice and mental health systems, and permanently altered the community. Years later, the man accused of these crimes took the witness stand to tell his version of the story.
Justin Bone claims he remembers almost nothing about the day those men died.
His testimony in the Edmonton Court of King's Bench paints a picture of a total system failure. It details a multi-day drug bender, severe hallucinations, and a glaring failure by law enforcement that placed an unstable, highly dangerous man exactly where he was legally forbidden to be.
The Bizarre Testimony of Justin Bone
Taking the stand with his hair shaved into a narrow mohawk and his hands and ankles in cuffs, the 40-year-old defendant spoke extensively about his life leading up to the events of May 18, 2022. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. His defense hinges on a total lack of memory regarding the attacks.
Bone told the court that he spent the days before his arrest roaming Edmonton streets without sleep, fueled entirely by heavy methamphetamine use. He described experiencing vivid hallucinations. The day before the homicides, after being removed from a detox center near the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Bone claimed he crossed the street, lay down, and looked at the sky. He claimed he saw a giant dragon or a face staring down at him.
Then came the stranger details. Bone testified that he sat up and noticed a magpie bird next to him eating a taquito. He claimed he spoke to the bird, asking if it was giving him an offering, before taking a bite out of the food himself.
He testified that the last clear thing he remembers before waking up in a police holding cell was sitting on the roof of a downtown warehouse on the morning of May 18. He said a metal grate fell in a fan room, which scared him and caused him to run away. According to his testimony, the next thing he knew, he was waking up thirsty in a cell, setting off the building's sprinkler system just to get a drink. He claimed he had no idea he was under arrest for murder until detectives told him both victims had died.
How the Justice System Placed a Dangerous Man on the Streets
The most damning part of the trial does not center on hallucinations or birds eating street food. It centers on a timeline of bureaucratic decisions that failed to protect the public.
Bone had been released from the Edmonton Remand Centre on April 29, 2022, on strict bail conditions related to entirely separate charges. Those conditions required him to stay completely out of Edmonton. He was ordered to live under supervision at a home in Alberta Beach, a small community about 70 kilometers west of the city. The homeowner was a family friend who had been the partner of Bone's late uncle.
Bone testified that this living arrangement quickly turned toxic. He alleged that the homeowner demanded sexual favors in exchange for housing, leaving him feeling trapped because he had nowhere else to turn. After a little over a week, Bone decided to end that arrangement. An argument broke out when the homeowner refused to buy him cannabis.
The homeowner called the RCMP and reported that Bone had threatened him. This is where the system completely broke down.
Instead of arresting Bone for uttering threats or returning him to jail for a clear breakdown of his bail residency conditions, RCMP officers loaded him into the back of a police cruiser. Bone testified that he explicitly warned the Mounties about his bail terms. He told them that taking him to Edmonton would put him in direct breach of his court orders. He even told the officers they should just take him back to jail.
They did not listen.
RCMP dashcam video played during the trial showed a 49-minute ride where Bone appeared highly agitated, frequently yelling and raising his voice in the back of the cruiser. Despite his erratic behavior and his known court restrictions, the officers drove him straight into Edmonton and dropped him off in the west end.
A Desperate Search for Shelter and More Drugs
Once dropped off in Edmonton, Bone was effectively homeless, unsupervised, and highly unstable. He testified that he asked to be left in the west end because he wanted to stay with an aunt and actively avoid the downtown Hope Mission shelter, which he viewed as dirty and unsafe.
The aunt was not home. With no options and no supervision, Bone turned to what he knew. He hooked up with a local drug dealer, spent the night smoking between two and three grams of methamphetamine, and began a multi-day downward spiral.
He tried to find help. He testified that he called a city crisis line, but they simply told him to go to the Hope Mission shelter he was trying to avoid. He called his probation officer. She reportedly told him that the only option available was to try and speed up an application for a rehabilitation center.
Left to his own devices, Bone continued using drugs. He described smoking meth with an artist who gave him a red marker, consuming more drugs at an acquaintance's house, and trading a youth on a bus for what he believed was marijuana. After smoking that substance, his paranoia escalated rapidly. He believed people in cars were watching and following him everywhere. By the time he reached Chinatown on May 18, he was entirely detached from reality.
The Crown Compares Actions to Intent
The prosecution has a completely different take on Bone's state of mind during the killings. While the defense attempts to establish that Bone was too intoxicated or psychotic to form the intent required for a murder conviction, the Crown points to his physical actions.
During the trial, the Crown argued that video footage of Bone inside the police holding cell tells a story of intentional choice and presence of mind. When Bone became thirsty, he did not just panic; he purposefully triggered the cell's fire sprinkler to get water. The prosecution argues this demonstrates an ability to assess a situation, identify a solution, and execute a physical action to achieve a specific result.
The Crown also relies heavily on surveillance video from outside Albert's Autobody, the site of one of the fatal attacks. The video shows Bone at the scene on May 18, contradicts his claims of a total memory blank, and establishes his physical presence during the timeline of the homicides.
Bone tried to deflect this evidence by claiming in court that the police video footage had been tampered with or altered. He claimed the clothes he remembers wearing that day do not match the clothes visible in the holding cell videos. He flatly stated that the videos shown in court were not the right videos.
The Devastating Impact on Edmonton Chinatown
While the legal battle plays out in a quiet courtroom, the memory of what happened on May 18, 2022, remains a painful scar for the people who live and work in Edmonton's Chinatown.
Ban Phuc Hoang and Hung Trang were not random targets in a gang war. They were community fixtures. They were elderly men working hard to support their families. The unprovoked, random violence of their deaths shattered the sense of safety in an area that was already struggling with poverty, open drug use, and social disorder.
The fact that the RCMP actively transported a known, violent offender with a history of non-compliance directly into the city and released him without notifying local police caused massive community outrage. It led to protests, intense demands for targeted funding for Chinatown security, and a provincial order forcing the city of Edmonton to produce a public safety plan.
The trial serves as a brutal reminder that the safety of a community is only as strong as the enforcement of the rules meant to protect it. When bail conditions are treated as optional suggestions by the very officers sworn to enforce them, vulnerable citizens pay the ultimate price.
Next Steps for the Justice System
The defense plan involves calling a psychologist and a toxicologist to analyze Bone's mental state and the impact of his massive methamphetamine consumption. Once that evidence is entered, the Crown will have its opportunity to cross-examine Bone fully and tear apart his claims of amnesia and video tampering.
This case is about more than a verdict for one man. It highlights the desperate need for real reform in how bail conditions are monitored and how different police jurisdictions communicate. An RCMP drop-off should never become a death sentence for innocent business owners in a neighboring city. Accountability must extend beyond the person swinging the weapon; it must address the broken processes that unlocked the door and walked him through it.
