Kenny Green’s trial postponed
Kenny Green’s trial for an alleged attack on a man with a hammer was postponed again in provincial court in St. John’s Tuesday, with his lawyer explaining more DNA had been collected for testing in connection with the case.
“Mr. Green would like to have the opportunity to see the rest of the DNA testing,” lawyer John Hartery told the court.
Crown prosecutor Alana Dwyer told Judge David Orr that police had recently executed more DNA warrants related to the matter and the results of their testing were expected within a couple of weeks.
“We have no issue postponing for that,” she said.
Green’s trial has been rescheduled for June 11 and 30.
The RNC arrested Green on Nov. 25 and charged him with assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon — a hammer — and breaching a release order. His trial had originally been set to take place at the end of January, when the Crown sought a postponement for pending forensic testing results on the alleged weapon.
“Mr. Green is not disputing that there was an altercation. However, he does not agree with the comment that he hit anyone with a hammer,” Hartery told the judge at that time, indicating Green wanted to go ahead with the trial as scheduled.
The RNC had been looking for Green for three days before his arrest, after a man in his 40s was assaulted at a home on Goodridge Street in St. John’s and taken to hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. A 42-year-old man was arrested in connection with the assault and Green was determined to be a second suspect.
Officers surrounded a home at 374 Empire Ave. the day after the assault upon receiving information Green was there, and were let in by an occupant. Green wasn’t there, though police said they had made contact with him.
The next day the RNC issued a public request for information on Green’s whereabouts, asking people not to approach him. They located Green riding as a passenger in a vehicle on Campbell Avenue a day later and arrested him on nearby Hamilton Avenue.
Green, 42, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2014 for the beating death of 47-yearold Joey Whalen in a home on Tessier Place a year earlier. He was sentenced to six years behind bars.
While in prison, Green was beaten in a planned attack by other inmates in the chapel at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary that saw them attempt to cover surveillance cameras before swarming him, assault him with a broken pew and stab him with a shank, leaving him with permanent injuries.
Green sued the provincial government for negligence over the chapel riot and received a $45,000 settlement in 2018.