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Calgary murder suspect Robert Daignault was not the victim of a Charter breach for unreasonable delay after COVID-19 derailed his first trial, a judge ruled Friday.
Justice Eleanor Funk found the decision of the Calgary Remand Centre to put Daignault and the rest of his unit on isolation after an inmate contracted the virus was not a delay attributable to the Crown.
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As a result, the more than 30 months it was going to take before Daignault’s second scheduled trial would have ended did not breach Daignault’s right to speedy justice, the Court of King’s Bench judge said.
Daignault was to stand trial last January, but days before that hearing he fired his lawyer. Funk noted new defence counsel Andrea Urquhart has conceded the delay between then and his now-scheduled trial for November was on her client.
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But Urquhart had argued the prosecution should be held responsible for the delay between January 2022 and earlier this year because of the remand centre’s arbitrary decision to put Daignault’s unit under lockdown.
Funk disagreed, accepting the position of Crown prosecutors Britta Kristensen and Alyx Nanji that the prisoner isolation decision was an “exceptional circumstance” contemplated by the Supreme Court when the set 30 months as the ceiling for getting matters to trial.
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“I agree that the Crown should not be held responsible for the delay that was caused when Mr. Daignault’s January 2022 trial dates were lost,” Funk said in her written decision.
“The policies and decisions of the remand centre regarding the transport of inmate’s was not within the Crown’s control.”
Funk found the prosecution took reasonable steps to mitigate any further delay following the cancelation of the first trial.
Trial slated to begin in early November
Daignault’s unit was placed on isolation on Dec. 26, 2021, when an inmate tested positive for COVID-19 and he wasn’t transported to court for the Jan. 4, 2022, scheduled start of his trial.
The accused himself tested positive for COVID-19 a week later.
Daignault is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 29, 2019 fatal stabbing of Calgary Uber driver Kasif Hirani.
In April 2022, Andrew Christal was convicted of manslaughter in connection with Hirani’s killing, when a jury accepted his testimony he had no idea Daignault was going to attack the victim during a botched robbery.
The Uber driver was forced into the back seat of his car outside a Calgary home and was driving to a remote area west of the city before he was attacked.
A third person involved in the case, Trista Tinkler, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Daignault’s trial before a judge sitting without a jury is set to begin Nov. 6.
KMartin@postmedia.com
X: @KMartinCourts
