Susan Clairmont: Taylor double murder trial delayed after juror tests positive for COVID

A double murder trial has come to a grinding halt after a juror tested positive for COVID.

A male juror at the trial of accused arsonist Richard Taylor tested positive Friday - after sitting in court - and under public health regulations must remain quarantined until Wednesday evening.

Justice Toni Skarica has tentatively ordered the trial to resume Thursday, however the 11 other jurors must all now undergo COVID testing and be negative for the full jury to resume its duties.

A criminal trial can continue with as few as 10 jurors, but Skarica has not considered that option so far.

On Friday the trial was dismissed early because a female juror wasn't feeling well. However she returned on Monday, only to be dismissed because of her fellow juror's COVID status. Also on Monday another male juror showed up with his arm in a sling.

Each juror - and everyone else in the courtroom - has been able to choose to wear a mask or not throughout the trial. About half wear one.

Surfaces in the courtroom are no longer being cleaned after each use, as they were during the height of the pandemic, and there is no social distancing.

The trial was beginning its fourth week and is predicted to last about six weeks. The Crown team of Janet Booy and Mark Dean are still presenting their case. They are partway through a screening of Taylor's video statement to police on the night he was arrested for two counts of first-degree murder.

Taylor, 46, is a former elementary school teacher, husband and father to two young children who is accused of firebombing his own childhood home in Dundas to kill his mother and stepfather for the inheritance.

The trial has heard Taylor was deep in debt and going to extraordinary efforts to keep it a secret - even from his wife.

Carla and Alan Rutherford were burned alive in the fire on July 9, 2018.

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com