Murder trial adjourned as COVID outbreak hits jail

A first-degree murder trial scheduled to continue on Monday in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench — after being adjourned due to possible missing notes from his psychiatric interviews — will not proceed because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the provincial jail.

Lawyers say inmates on remand at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, like Blake Jeffrey Schreiner, are currently not being brought to court as a precautionary measure.

The trial has now been adjourned until Jan. 25.

The defence still needs to call its psychiatric evidence pertaining to Schreiner's mental state when he killed his spouse, 39-year-old mother and educator Tammy Brown.

Schreiner, 39, has admitted stabbing Brown 80 times in their River Heights neighbourhood home on Jan. 29, 2019.

The Crown argues this was first-degree murder. The defence is trying to establish that Schreiner was suffering from paranoia and delusions so severe at the time that it rendered him not criminally responsible.

A finding of not criminally responsible could see Schreiner placed in a psychiatric facility, where he would be treated and assessed for an indeterminate amount of time, instead of the penitentiary system.

In September, he testified that he thought his spouse and mother of their two young children was part of a secret society trying to kill him and frame him as a pedophile.

In his police interview, Schreiner said he was upset that Brown had brought up separating and custody of their kids during a conversation the night before he killed her.

The trial also heard from relatives of both Schreiner and Brown, who said Brown had repeatedly tried to get Schreiner help for his mental health issues.