A Langley man charged with murdering his friend on New Year's Eve earlier told hospital workers he attempted suicide by driving into oncoming traffic in 2009, according to Crown submissions in an unrelated case.

Jason Terrence Brewer, 24, was set to go to trial for criminal negligence causing bodily harm for that crash which injured several people.

Now he is charged with the Dec. 31 murder of a Cloverdale man who police say was his friend Cole Adam Manning, 40.

Langley RCMP were called to a house in the 19800-block of 69th Ave., where they found Manning dead inside a basement suite he had recently rented. Police quickly identified Brewer as a suspect and arrested him two hours later.

Brewer was on probation at the time of the murder, after being convicted last July of assault with a weapon in an April 2011 attack on his mother in Langley. He was sentenced to a day in jail and 18 months probation for the assault, as well as a 2009 robbery of a Mac's convenience store. He was also given a lifetime firearms prohibition.

His most significant charges before the murder count came after the Nov. 15, 2009 crash, which happened after he admitted to using both crack cocaine and marijuana. He drove a pickup truck eastbound on Highway 10 near 192nd St., swerving violently into the westbound lanes of the highway about 3: 19 p.m.

Brewer initially pleaded guilty to the charges, but Judge Peder Gulbransen allowed him to withdraw the pleas because he claimed he didn't fully understand the charges. He is due to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on the crash charges on Jan. 17 for a pre-trial hearing.

- Kim Bolan is a Vancouver Sun reporter.

Special to the Langley Addvance