Sixteen months after Brad Southwind's homicide trial abruptly ended in a mistrial, he's back in a Sault Ste. Marie courtroom facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of his best friend five years ago.
Joseph Topping's body was discovered on Feb. 14, 2018 in a wooded marshy area behind his Elliot Lake apartment building.
The 31-year-old's mother had reported him missing a month earlier, and following an extensive police investigation, Southwind was charged with his killing in August 2018.
Topping had been stabbed 17 times.
After three weeks of hearing evidence in July of last year, the jurors were deliberating for a second day when Superior Court Justice Annalisa Rasaiah called them back into the courtroom.
She told them she was declaring a mistrial after learning that some documents, including a medical report from a psychiatrist that hadn't been entered as evidence, had inadvertently been sent to the jury room in an exhibit box.
On Nov. 20, Southwind was back at the Sault courthouse for the selection of a new group of men and women to decide his fate.
There was no sign of the judge or lawyers for about 90 minutes as members of the jury pool waited in the building's largest courtroom.
Superior Court Justice Michael Varpio then entered and took his seat on the bench.
"The accused has decided to re-elect a trial with a judge alone," he told the prospective jurors, thanking them for re-affirming our values and belief in the rule of law.
"By showing up this morning you did your part," he said.
When Southwind was arraigned the following day on the first-degree murder charge, the 28-year-old Elliot Lake man pleaded not guilty to the offence but guilty to manslaughter.
The prosecution didn't accept his plea to the lesser offence.
Since then, the Crown, defence, and Varpio have been discussing the issues and how to proceed with the matter.
Late last week, prosecutors Karen Pritchard and David Didiodato provided the court with an agreed statement of facts and dozens of documents and exhibits from the first trial.
These included transcripts of testimony from Crown witnesses: numerous police officers, a pathologist and Southwind's grandfather.
The assistant Crown attorneys also filed a video-taped interview with an Ontario Provincial Police officer following his arrest on Aug. 14, 2018.
During the two-and-a half hour interrogation, he admitted he had repeatedly stabbed Topping with a knife.
Southwind said he killed his best friend because "I interpreted Joseph wanted to die."
They were drinking, "doing drugs" and "and all kinds of crazy stuff was going on," he told the officer.
Both men were schizophrenics and weren't taking their medications.
The Crown then closed its case.
Varpio noted this could lead to a conviction beyond a reasonsable doubt that Southwind had killed the victim.
The one issue is Southwind's mental health at the time, his substance abuse and whether he was able to form an intent to murder. This information probably could lead to a manslaughter conviction.
Defence lawyers Don Orazietti and Anthony Orazietti indicated they wanted to hear from the psychiatrist who had examined their client and prepared a court-ordered assessment.
The Crown never entered the report as evidence at the first trial.
The matter was put over to this past Monday.
Anthony Orazietti said the defence wants to clarify some of the doctor's findings and his response to questions they had asked in an e-mail.
The case was adjourned so the lawyers could re-draft the questions.
When they returned to court today, Varpio heard the psychiatrist may be available to testify on Friday, Monday or Tuesday.
The trial will tentatively resume Friday.