A Toronto judge has declared a mistrial in a beating death trial after finding the prosecution improperly played videos to the jury during the cross-examination of one of the accused.“It is with considerable regret a mistrial is required in this case,” Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell said Thursday, dismissing jurors who began hearing evidence Oct. 9.William Cummins, Matthew Moreira and Patrick Smith, who are charged with the first-degree murder of Zaher (Zack) Noureddine and the robbery of Mitchell Conery, were ordered to appear back in court Tuesday.Noureddine and Conery were attacked around midnight on Dec. 30, 2015, after leaving a restaurant and walking to Conery’s car, which was parked near Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave.Noureddine was punched, kicked and kneed in the attack and died as a result of blunt-force trauma to his head. Conery survived and testified last month.The defence did not contest the accused men were present during the assault. The issues at trial were the intent of the accused, their level of intoxication and the roles played by each man.Read more: Men who beat Zack Noureddine to death were complete strangers, Crown saysAt the outset of the trial, the prosecution rejected an attempt by the three to plead guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter.The Crown’s case closed Oct. 15 after the jury saw dozens of video clips taken from surveillance cameras that evening, including footage from the apartment building, at 100 Merton St., where Smith and Cummins lived at the time.Cummins took the stand and admitted he caused the death of Noureddine and assault of Conery.But his chronology of the events leading up to the attack was not consistent with much of the video evidence introduced by the Crown, Forestell wrote in her ruling.During her cross-examination of Cummins, prosecutor Bev Richards played him 17 video clips, including 11 that had not been previously played in court before.Counsel for all three men objected ...
|
