Robert Steven Wright is seeking his release on bail for a third time since he was taken into custody nearly three years ago from the North Bay Regional Health Centre and charged in relation to the 1998 homicide of Renée Sweeney in Sudbury.
Wright, 42, appeared via CCTV from Sudbury Jail, Tuesday, represented by Toronto lawyer Michael Lacy. Wright's bail application will be heard virtually, Dec. 17.
This will be Wright’s third attempt at bail. In May 2020, Superior Court Justice Edward Gareau rejected Wright’s most recent bail application. Wright was also denied bail in 2019.
A tentative trial date is set for Sept. 12, 2022, and Lacy told the court he is hoping to confirm that date when Wright’s matter returns to assignment court in January.
There have been several delays. The trial had been scheduled to start this past October but was postponed because Wright changed lawyers only a few weeks prior to the start of the trial.
Wright also contracted COVID-19 recently as part of the outbreak at Sudbury Jail, which closed the facility for weeks and sent inmates to other locations in Ontario.
Pretrial dates have also been set for the week of March 21, 2022, and April 25, 2022.
Wright was arrested in December 2018 and initially charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 23-year-old Sweeney. The charge was later downgraded to second-degree murder.
See: Crown secures direct indictment in Sweeney murder case, meaning it goes directly to trial
Police say Sweeney was attacked at her workplace, an adult video store on Paris Street, and sustained multiple stab wounds.
Wright was 18 at the time of the murder, a resident of Sudbury, and a student at Lockerby Composite School. He later moved to North Bay and worked as a laboratory technician.
