Manitoba homicide trial paused after new cases of COVID-19 identified among jurors

A trial in the disappearance and homicide of Eduardo Balaquit in Winnipeg has been put on pause for five days after two more jurors tested positive Wednesday morning for COVID-19.

“Two more of your fellow jury members have tested positive for COVID-19,” Justice Sadie Bond, told jurors. “They were asked to return home immediately.”

The two new cases make a total of four jurors in the trial, which started with 14 jury members and two alternates, who have contracted the coronavirus.

Court heard the first juror tested positive Friday and was replaced with an alternate jury member before the trial started on Monday.

On Tuesday, court heard a second juror had tested positive overnight. They were directed not to attend court and discharged from their duties as a juror.

Bond told the court Wednesday that the two most recent jurors to test positive have not been discharged but notified the remaining jurors in attendance the trial will adjourn for five days before reconvening on Apr. 12.

The remaining jurors have been asked to self-monitor for symptoms and self-administer rapid tests.

After the first two cases were identified, voluntary rapid tests were made available to jurors to take Tuesday morning at the courthouse. Court heard each of the 13 jurors in attendance agreed to do one and their results all came back negative.

However, on Wednesday when the jurors did their rapid tests, two new cases were identified.

Anyone entering the courthouse is required to wear masks and jurors are seated with a distance between each other in the courtroom.

Manitoba no longer mandates people who test positive to self-isolate, but Bond told jurors the court is following public health guidance which recommends people to stay home for five days.

Rapid tests will be made available to jurors when court reconvenes on Apr. 12, Bond told the jury.

Jurors have been directed not to talk about the case, read media reports or visit any of the locations talked about in the trial.

“You must decide the case on the evidence presented in the courtroom,” Bond told the jury.

Court has heard Balaquit, 59, vanished on the evening of Jun. 4, 2018, after going to Westcon Equipment where he worked cleaning the business. His body has never been found and his family has told the court they haven’t heard from him since.

Kyle Alexander Pietz, 36, a former employee of Westcon, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.

He is presumed innocent.