A judge has rejected a last-ditch attempt to have the jury dismissed in the high-profile murder case against Jeremy Skibicki – a non-Indigenous man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg.
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal of Manitoba Court of King’s Bench delivered his decision from the bench Friday.
Joyal said the defence failed to prove the influence of extensive pre-trial publicity and the results of a public opinion poll showed the jury would be biased and unable to give the evidence a fair hearing.
He said he remained confident in the “time-honored safeguards to protect the impartiality of the jury.”
A judge and jury is automatic in a first-degree murder trial in Canada. It’s left up to the provincial attorney-general (represented by the Crown) and the presiding judge to decide whether to proceed without jurors hearing the case.
In this case, both the Crown and Joyal denied the defence’s two attempts to dismiss the jury.
Skibicki’s legal team, led by Leonard Tailleur, first argued the Crown’s choice violated his client’s constitutional right to a judge-alone trial. The second motion suggested the jury was likely biased against the accused due to saturated news coverage.
The nine women, three-men and two alternates selected last week were scheduled to begin hearing evidence in the long-awaited case on May 8. The trial is expected to run until June 6.
Skibicki, who has been in court all week, showed no emotion as Joyal turned down the latest motion from his three Legal Aid-appointed lawyers.
The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the spring 2022 slayings of Rebecca Contois, Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris and a still-unidentified victim gifted the spirit name Buffalo Woman by First Nations elders.
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Tailleur shared his reaction to the latest defeat after court adjourned for the day.
“It’s the chief judge’s decision and we follow it, of course,” he told reporters. “Onwards and upwards we go to the jury trial.”
The defence revealed earlier this week it would argue the accused is not criminally responsible for the crimes due to a mental disorder, also known as NCR.
One of the witnesses expected to testify in the trial is Erin Leszkovics, Skibicki’s estranged wife, whose mother attended court Friday and spoke to reporters afterwards.
“(It felt) surreal (seeing him again),” she said. “It kind of made me feel a little bit nauseous.”
It has been reported that Leszkovics met Skibicki in February 2018 at Siloam Mission, a homeless shelter in Winnipeg. They soon married, and one year later Leszkovics applied and obtained a protection order against him.
