R v Camelo-Gomez (No 5)

On 7 March 2022 the accused, Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez, was arraigned before this Court and a jury panel on a charge of murder. She entered a plea of not guilty and a jury was empanelled. Her trial commenced. Since that date, I think it is fair to say that the trial has been beset by difficulties, principally relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, but with a severe weather event thrown in for good measure.

The Court has sat between 7 March and today, but in that time there have been more days with no evidence taken and the jury absent than there have been days with evidence taken in the presence of the jury. To say that the proceedings have become fragmented is perhaps an understatement. In my judgment, they have become both disjointed and fragmented and there is a real difficulty with the history of the proceedings.

During the course of last week, the accused returned a positive result for COVID-19 on a Rapid Antigen Test. That was subsequently confirmed on Friday morning by the result of a PCR test returned that day, and the Court is advised that the accused will not be out of the mandatory isolation period for COVID-19 sufferers until this coming Thursday, 31 March 2022.

The jury was not asked to attend today because it was understood from email correspondence between the Court and the parties that that would be the accused’s situation. That represents yet another delay which is one that simply cannot be accepted with this jury continuing.

The accused has made an application for the discharge for the jury. The Crown supports the application. It is my opinion that that is the only proper outcome given the circumstances of the proceedings as they have been conducted to date.

Accordingly, I propose to make the following orders:

The jury having been discharged, as the Court advised the parties during the course of last week, the matter can be fixed for retrial on 4 April 2022. I will fix that date for trial with a mention of the matter to confirm the trial date this coming Thursday, 31 March 2022.