Quadruple-murder trial begins Accused serial killer’s lawyers argue for judge to hear case without jury By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 12:56 PM CDT Monday, Apr. 29, 2024 Last Modified: 1:34 PM CDT Monday, Apr. 29, 2024 Updates

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The long-anticipated quadruple-murder trial of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki began Monday morning with a renewed argument over the potential for juror bias.

A jury was chosen last week, but will not be seated in the courtroom to hear evidence until May 8.

Last November, Skibicki’s lawyers argued a motion that denying him the right to be tried by a judge alone was arbitrary and unconstitutional, but it was dismissed by Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal, who is presiding over the trial.

Several weeks ago, Skibicki’s Legal Aid lawyers commissioned a poll questioning respondents about the case and are now using it as the basis for another attempt to have the case tried by a judge alone, and not a jury.

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Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the May 2022 slayings of three Indigenous women — Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and Marcedes Myran — as well as a fourth as-of-yet unidentified woman killed in March 2022, who Indigenous leaders have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

Skibicki is accused of sexually assaulting and killing the victims in his Winnipeg home before disposing of their remains in garbage bins.

Skibicki, dressed in a jail-issue grey T-shirt and track pants, sat in the prisoner’s box a few steps away from his lawyers, flanked by two Sherrif’s officers.

His lawyers are arguing results of the poll — which included questions about whether respondents had a positive or negative view of Skibicki, whether his social media profile suggested he was a caring, violent or racist person and whether they had formed an opinion about his guilt — raise concerns about the ability of jurors to remain unbiased in the case.

On Monday, court heard testimony from Quito Maggi, president of Mainstreet Research, the company commissioned to conduct the poll.

Maggi didn’t comment specifically on the results, but defended the integrity of the poll, which he described as a “snapshot” of the views of the 906 respondents surveyed by phone or text between Feb. 12 and Feb. 15.

“It was a very typical survey,” he said. “There were spots where the completion rate didn’t fall into (normal) parameters… but I wouldn’t say it was a problem.”

Maggi said poll questions were written by Skibicki’s defence team and were provided to respondents from a script, with no deviations or prompting.

Crown prosecutor Renee Lagimodiere argued poll questions did not adequately define terms such as “self-defence” and not criminally responsible,” compromising the results.

“This is public opinion, not expert opinion,” Maggi said. “It is a snapshot of people’s perception of what these words mean, not a legal definition.”

The intent of the poll was to “forecast potential outcomes,” he said.

Lagimodiere suggested those “outcomes” could not be accurately predicted when the questions that gave rise to them lacked “informed detail.”

“No,” Maggi replied. “People’s inherent biases will come out regardless of logic or details.”

Joyal expressed skepticism on that point, suggesting that the same group of respondents, if supplied a “more sophisticated understanding” of the questions, could, if surveyed two weeks later, provide “a very different result.”

Arguments on the jury issue resume Tuesday and are scheduled for five days.

During jury selection last week, King’s Bench Justice Rick Saul asked each candidate seven questions agreed to by both Crown and defence, to determine whether they could be unbiased in assessing the evidence, if chosen to hear it.

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Questions included whether their ability to remain unbiased would be affected by the fact the four deceased were Indigenous, whether they have formed an opinion as to Skibicki’s guilt and whether they were open to finding a person guilty of murder was not criminally responsible for their actions, if the evidence supported it.

Five of the selected jurors told Saull they had not heard of the case prior to arriving at court.

Jurors are expected to hear opening submissions in the trial on May 8.

The Myran, Harris and Contois families have requested privacy during the trial, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs advised in a release Monday.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.