The Crown has stayed a child sexual abuse material charge against Robert Steven Wright, convicted of second degree murder in the stabbing death of Renée Sweeney. A stay of proceedings halts further legal process in a trial or other legal proceeding.
Prosecutors made the call during video remand court in Sudbury on July 6. Though they have one year to refile the charge, the Crown did not indicate if that was a possibility.
Wright was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography on Feb. 15, 2019, approximately four days before one of his bail hearings.
Arrested in December 2018, Wright was denied bail several times prior to the murder trial beginning and his total of 4.5 years of time served was accounted for in the sentence he was given. Second degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence. At a hearing on June 29, Wright learned he would serve 12 years before he would be eligible for parole.
Sweeney was at work at a video store in a plaza at 1500 Paris St. when, on the morning of Jan. 27, 1998, she was killed. At the time, Wright was an 18-year-old student at Lockerby Composite School, within walking distance of the store where Sweeney worked.
The second-degree murder trial began with jury selection on Feb. 21 and after a little over a month of evidence and testimony, the jury began their deliberations shortly before 1 p.m. on March 28 and reached a decision the next day.
The Crown rested its case on March 10. Crown witnesses included the manager of the video store, eyewitnesses to the aftermath of the killing, police officers who investigated the crime and forensic scientists who could offer context to DNA evidence found.
The defence called Wright himself, who said he had found Sweeney injured, but he did not kill her. Believing she was already dead, Wright testified he fled the scene.
After the parole eligibility hearing, Wright’s defence counsel, Michael Lacy, told the media the murder conviction would likely be appealed.
“I have every expectation (Wright) will be appealing the conviction,” he said. Lacy noted that he did not feel it was possible for Wright to get a fair trial in Sudbury.
Lacy said if an Ontario Court of Appeal case is filed, it will be handled by Joseph Wilkinson, another Toronto lawyer.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com.
