Judge tackles backlog of jury trials

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge tasked with scheduling dozens of pending jury trials in the Halifax region had to utilize his juggling skills at a special hearing Friday.

All jury trials in the province were suspended in March because of COVID-19.

Jury matters resumed in some parts of the province in September, but not in metro, where there's not enough space at the Halifax Law Courts building for jury trials during the pandemic.

The provincial government announced in October that it has leased space in Dartmouth's Burnside Park that will be converted into two new courtrooms for jury trials. The Mellor Avenue courtrooms are expected to ready for use in March.

During a five-hour hearing Friday, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Duncan dealt with almost 30 cases in the queue for jury trials. At least 14 of the cases that were on the docket involve murder charges.

Duncan started the hearing by swapping out one murder trial for another.

Adam Joseph Drake was supposed to go to trial in March on a charge of firstdegree murder in the July 2016 shooting death of Tyler Keizer, but the judge decided to use that time for a hearing for Markel Jason Downey instead.

Downey is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder from a triple-shooting home invasion in Cole Harbour in November 2014.

A Supreme Court judge found Downey not guilty in February 2017 on 28 charges from the home invasion, including three counts of attempted murder, but the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal in April 2018 and ordered a new trial.

The charges against Downey were upgraded after one of the shooting victims, Ashley Maclean Kearse, died in July 2018. Downey's murder trial was supposed to be held in the spring of 2019 but was postponed twice at the request of the defence and a third time because of the pandemic.

On Friday, Duncan agreed with the Crown's request to give Downey's matter priority over Drake's case.

Unlike Downey, Drake is out on bail. His trial is now set to begin next November.

Duncan apologized for having to postpone Drake's trial, “but it's a reflection of the difficult position that all of us are in.”

The judge referenced the Supreme Court of Canada's Jordan decision several times during Friday's hearing. That landmark 2016 decision said people charged with crimes have a right to have their case heard within 18 months in provincial courts or 30 months in superior courts.

Barring exceptional circumstances, any delay longer than that is unreasonable, the Jordan ruling said.

Many of the cases on Friday's docket have already exceeded the Jordan deadline or will be past it when they go to trial. It's unclear whether the courts would consider the pandemic an exceptional circumstance.

Also Friday, Duncan set dates for retrials for two men whose murder convictions were recently quashed on appeal.

Randy Desmond Riley, charged with second-degree murder in the 2010 shooting of pizza delivery driver Donald Chad Smith in Dartmouth, will have his new trial in October 2021.

Ricardo Jerrel Whynder, accused of second-degree murder in the 2013 shooting of Matthew Sudds in Halifax, will go to trial again in January 2022.