(Quebec) Judge Richard Grenier chose Wednesday to suspend the trial of the Old Quebec saber killer to avoid an abortion, while the jury is hit by the sixth wave of COVID-19.
Posted at 10:54 a.m.
The jury lost a first member after returning from the lunch break on Tuesday. A woman had contracted COVID-19. Judge Grenier then decided to prosecute without her. She was therefore de facto ejected from the jury.
Then, a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday morning: only on the third day, the magistrate announced that a second juror had been declared positive for the virus. If the judge continued the hearings, he therefore excluded a second juror and the jury would have ended up with 10 members, the minimum threshold to avoid an abortion of the trial.
The Superior Court judge therefore decided to suspend the trial of Carl Girouard until Tuesday. “It will ensure that we will not lose one more juror,” noted Justice Grenier, noting that the minimum isolation period is five days.
“I thank you for having agreed to fulfill this duty as a citizen, a duty a little more difficult to fulfill in the circumstances,” noted Judge Grenier, addressing the jurors. “We are going to weather the storm and finish this trial together. »
By suspending the trial, the magistrate is betting that the remaining 11 members will return from the Easter holiday with negative tests and that the trial can resume. We will know on Tuesday if this is the case.
The judge also invited the lawyers to increase admissions to speed up the trial, scheduled for four to five weeks. On Tuesday, the Crown presented two police witnesses, who retraced Girouard’s journey on the evening of the October 31, 2020 attack.
Recall that the accused has already admitted to having killed two innocent bystanders with a saber that evening, and admits to having injured five others. He pleads not responsible on account of mental disorder.
“There are admissions. For example, the policeman who came to tell us about the accused’s journey [mardi]the whole thing could have taken five minutes,” the judge said.
“I don’t want to do this in a hurry. But I want to do this as soon as possible and that we put all the chances on our side. »