A judge has rejected a last-ditch attempt to have the jury dismissed in the high-profile, homicide case against Jeremy Skibicki – a non-Indigenous man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg two years ago.
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 pre-trial publicity and results of an online 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 presiding judge to decide whether to proceed without jurors hearing the case.
In this case, both the Crown and Joyal denied both defence 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 extensive 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 Ojibwe spirit name Buffalo Woman by First Nations elders. He was arrested on May 17, 2022.
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Tailleur reacted 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 due to a mental disorder, also known as NCR.
One of the witnesses expected to testify in the trial is Skibicki’s ex-wife, whose mother attended court Friday and spoke to reporters afterwards.
“(It felt) surreal (seeing him again),” the mother said. “It kind of made me feel a little bit nauseous.”
It has been reported that Skibicki met his former wife in February 2018 at Siloam Mission, a homeless shelter in Winnipeg. They soon married, and one year later the woman applied and obtained a protection order against him.
