The trial was declared after some documents were included in an exhibition box that were not intended to be there and were sent to the jury room on Friday.
The three-week homicide trial of an Elliot Lake man ended abruptly Saturday when the judge declared the trial null and void.
Superior Court Judge Annalisa Rasaiah discharged the jurors at 11:45 a.m., telling them she had ordered the trial to be set aside “as a result of some facts that have transpired.”
The jury began its second day of deliberations at the trial for first-degree murder of Brad Southwind.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m., in the absence of the jury, the Crown and the defense were summoned to the courtroom.
Rasaiah said he had learned this morning that some documents had ended up unintentionally in an exhibition box that had been sent to the jury room on Friday.
The documents included a medical report from a doctor at a mental health center that had not been introduced as evidence at trial.
When a judicial services agent went to retrieve them, he found that the package had been opened and the documents had been viewed by the jurors.
Prosecutor Karen Pritchard indicated that the Crown’s position is that there is a risk of actual harm due to this error.
“There should be a null trial,” the Crown’s assistant attorney said.
Defense attorney Don Orazietti agreed.
Rasaiah said the fairness of the trial had been compromised.
“To avoid a miscarriage of justice, I am declaring the trial set aside,” he told attorneys.
The jury was then taken to the courtroom.
After informing them of his decision, the judge thanked the jurors for their service.
He also reminded them that everything that is said and debated, along with the votes that are cast in the jury room “must be kept secret”.
No one “has a right to know what was said,” Rasaiah told them, adding that disclosing this information is a crime under the Canada Penal Code.
Lawyers will appear before a trial judge in August to set a date for a new trial.
Southwind, 27, is accused of murdering his best friend four years ago.
Joseph Topping’s body was located in a wooded swampy area on February 14, 2018, a month after his mother reported the disappearance of his 31-year-old son.
It was discovered along a path behind a building on Mississauga Avenue, where both men had apartments.
Topping had been stabbed 17 times in the neck, chest, back, head and face.
During the 12-day trial, the court heard testimony from several Ontario Provincial Police officers involved in the investigation, as well as a forensic pathologist, a DNA expert and two members of the Southwind family.
Defendant also took the witness stand in his own defense and during cross-examination prosecutor David Didiodato admitted to killing Topping.