Updated June 29 at 9:16 a.m.: Robert Steven Wright will serve 12 years before he is eligible for parole. Wright received an automatic life sentence for the 1998 murder of Renée Sweeney. More to come ...
Original story
Robert Steven Wright, convicted of the 1998 murder of Renée Sweeney, will appear in Sudbury court today, June 29, to learn how long he will spend in jail before parole eligibility.
Wright was found guilty of second-degree murder on March 28 after a five-week trial. Wright has been incarcerated since his arrest in December 2018, when he was charged with her stabbing death.
On May 19, Justice Robbie Gordon heard submissions from Crown attorneys, Rob Parsons and Kevin Ludgate, and defence co-counsel, Michael Lacy and Bryan Badali. There were also victim impact statements, some read to the court, others submitted to the judge for consideration.
Renée Sweeney’s sister, Kim Sweeney, described for the judge her decades of torment wondering who killed her sister, even as the convicted killer, Robert Steven Wright, continued to maintain his innocence in his statement to the court.
The second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence. The Crown called for 18 years before Wright is eligible for parole; defence counsel submitted that it should be the minimum of 10 years. The jury, when polled, voted in a majority for more than 20 years.
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 stabbed to death. 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 admitted that he had found Sweeney injured, but said he did not kill her. Believing she was already dead, Wright testified he fled the scene.
Wright will appear in court June 29 at 9 a.m.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter at Sudbury.com.
