The first few months of 2019 are already shaping-up as a hectic time for possibly finalising some of the most serious claims of criminal culpability of the past year. Or at least for making some significant inroads.

That is on top of the already substantial daily, bread-and-butter case loads that courts right across the Border region have to tackle.

Albury Local Court is on its Christmas-New Year hiatus, but on the first return sitting day of January 7, 76 cases are listed.

Wodonga Magistrates Court, as with all across Victoria, will return the same day, though gets hectic on the second with 57 matters listed.

Three notable murder cases alone are taking the slow path through Albury Local Court on the way to possible trials before the Supreme Court.

But that is no guarantee.

A few weeks ago, one of two men accused of the murder of Corowa man Christopher Quirk heard the news, via a video link to Junee jail, that the charge against him was being reviewed.

Adam Dennis Coates’ lawyer said there appeared to be “some issue” with the charge, which meant discussions were ongoing on this possibly being downgraded.

But for Coates’ co-accused, Heath Kevin Parkinson, it’s business as usual on his murder charge, with the pair’s matters back in court on February 5.

No indication though has been given of when a trial might finally get under way over the allegations.

Mr Quirk died in early March, with police saying Coates intervened in a fight between Mr Quirk and Parkinson, who were both carrying knives, at a property in Vera Street, Corowa.

Also, there is the case of Jacob Allan, facing a trial due to begin next month over the death of Wangaratta man Russell Berry back in May of 2017.

A three-day committal in Wangaratta in April resulted in magistrate Ian Atkins finding there was sufficient evidence for a jury to convict Allan, who has pleaded not guilty.

This all arose from a brawl in the early hours of May 20 that, it is alleged, ultimately led to Allan committing murder by stomping on Mr Berry’s head and chest. 

Another murder case to figure in 2019 will be one where charges came several weeks after Wangaratta man Nathan Day was reported missing.

The 34-year-old’s mysterious disappearance had prompted emotional pleas from his mother, sister and former partner.

 Mr Day’s body was found, by the Missing Persons Squad, in the back yard of a Ryan Avenue property on the Wednesday afternoon of September 5.

Soon after, Phillip Dunn, 59, and Darcy McNamara, 42, were arrested and charged with committing the murder, as far back as July 26. They will front Wangaratta Magistrates Court again on February 14.

Other murder cases from Albury to figure include that of Greg Trimmings, a former South Australian accused of inflicting fatal head injuries on his 46-year-old partner at their Olive Street unit in April, and of Adam Azzi.

Azzi has been committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court over the death of Lavington man Lloyd Kennedy, 35.

The prosecution alleges that Azzi stabbed Mr Kennedy outside a house in Webb Street.

One especially high-profile case involves five people arrested in a major cross-border drug-dealing operation in which police seized ice and cocaine valued at $300,000.

All of the accused – Mahmoud El-Zayat, his partner, Claudette Tannous, Kylie Maree Pearce, Thomas Alfred Purtell and Alfred Maxwell Clark – remain in custody, though El-Zayat did make a recent failed attempt to secure bail.

The five will front court again, via video links, on February 5.

The judicial process isn’t just theatre for the stories told out of tragic death and the scourge of illicit drugs, nor the often life-altering impact of sexual crime.

The allegation that a Wodonga cafe manager set fire to his own business was one of the most closely watched cases of 2018 and is certain to be that again when it resumes.

Rocky Pereira allegedly used an accelerant to set fire to an electrical room next to RM Fresh on Stanley Street in mid-July, causing about $150,000 in damage to the cafe.

In May, the allegations will be further tested when four witnesses, including the accused’s own girlfriend, are called-on to give evidence when the case returns to Wodonga Magistrates Court.

Another notable case will be that of well-known Border finance identity Peter Challis, who has denied criminal allegations arising from an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

A claim that the former boss of WAW Credit Union failed to exercise his duties in good faith and in the best interests of the corporation, after allegedly failing to disclose information about voting irregularities, will be tested at a committal hearing in the Wodonga court in May.

And then there is the case of Ryan Wayne Kenny. The truck driver is charged over the deaths of Amanda Kilmister and her son Harrison, 10, in a crash on the Murray Valley Highway at Brimin last month.

Oldest son Felix, who wasn’t in the family car for that fateful journey, wrote to the Wangaratta Magistrates Court to plead for Kenny to be kept behind bars.

Kenny though got bail. He will return to court on March 14.