Sweeney trial adjourned until Monday, when closing arguments expected

The jury in the Rene Sweeney murder trial was back in the Sudbury courthouse Thursday morning for the first time in over a week.

But not for very long.

The 13 jurors, several of whom contracted COVID-19 last week,heard some agreed statements of fact read into the record by the judge, but then court adjourned until Monday.

Unlike earlier in the trial, most of the jury was wearing masksand they were sitting in two different areas of the courtroom so they could spread out.

The court heard that closing arguments are expected on Monday, followed by the judge's instructions to the jury on Tuesday, after which they would go into deliberations to come up with a verdict.

Steven Wright, 43, is charged with second-degree murder, accused of stabbing Sweeney to death in a south-end Sudbury video store inJanuary 1998.

The evidence in the trial wrapped up Thursday with Justice Robbie Gordon reading some agreed statements of factmeaning they've been agreed on by both the Crown and defenceinto the record.

He read a statement from the former spouse of John Fetterly, who was briefly charged with Sweeney's murder in February 1998.

His name has come up a lot during the trial, with the defence suggesting that someone matching Fetterly's description was seen entering the video store the morning Sweeney was killed.

The statement from Fetterly's ex said he had a fascination with knives, would sometimes take one when he left the house and that he had a "volatile temper."

"He could be nice one minute and turn into a different person the next," Gordon read.

The court also heard that Fetterly was arrested for stealing pornographic magazines from a convenience storein the small southern Ontario town of Mildmayon Jan. 30, 1998, three days after Sweeney's murder.