Citation: R v Camelo-Gomez (No 5) [2022] NSWSC 353
Court: Supreme Court of New South Wales
Date: 28 March 2022
Judge: Wilson J
Background
The accused was arraigned on a charge of murder on 7 March 2022, entered a plea of not guilty, and a jury was empanelled to hear the trial. From the outset, the proceedings were disrupted by a series of problems, primarily linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an additional severe weather event compounding the delays.
By the time of this judgment, the trial had been running for approximately three weeks. However, more days had passed without evidence being heard in the jury's presence than days on which evidence was actually taken. The proceedings had become, in Wilson J's characterisation, both disjointed and fragmented.
The immediate trigger for the application was the accused herself returning a positive COVID-19 rapid antigen test result during the preceding week, subsequently confirmed by a PCR test. This meant she would remain in mandatory isolation until 31 March 2022, making it impossible for the trial to continue with the existing jury.
Legal Issues
- Whether the empanelled jury should be discharged from further service given the cumulative disruption to the trial caused by COVID-19 and other events.
Decision
Wilson J accepted the application for discharge of the jury, which was made by the accused and supported by the Crown. Her Honour found that the proceedings had reached a point where continuing with the same jury was not a proper course.
The judgment identified the core problem as the cumulative fragmentation of the trial rather than any single disrupting event. The accused's positive COVID-19 diagnosis, which prevented her from attending until at least 31 March 2022, was the final event in a sequence that rendered continuation untenable.
Her Honour concluded that discharging the jury was the only proper outcome in the circumstances and fixed the matter for retrial, with a mention date on 31 March 2022 to confirm the new trial date of 4 April 2022.
Orders Made
- The jury empanelled on 7 March 2022 was discharged from further service.
- The Sheriff's Office was directed to contact each former juror by telephone to advise them of the discharge, explain that it was caused by COVID-19 infections among trial participants making continuation impossible, and convey the judge's thanks for their service.
- The matter was fixed for retrial on 4 April 2022, with a mention on 31 March 2022 to confirm that date.
Key Takeaways
- Wilson J discharged the entire jury mid-trial in a murder proceeding where COVID-19 disruptions had caused such cumulative fragmentation that continuing with the same jury was no longer appropriate.
- The decision reflects that the threshold for discharging a whole jury may be reached not by a single dramatic event, but through the accumulation of multiple delays and interruptions over time.
- Both the accused and the Crown supported the discharge application, and the court's reasoning did not turn on any contested legal argument between the parties.
- A retrial was ordered promptly, indicating that discharge of the jury in these circumstances did not operate as a bar to the accused being tried again on the murder charge.
- The Supreme Court directed personalised telephone contact with discharged jurors to explain the reason for discharge, illustrating attention to juror welfare and transparency in exceptional procedural circumstances.
Legislation and Cases Referenced
No legislation or cases were cited in the judgment text or metadata for this decision.