The jury selected in the murder trial of Randy Tshilumba will begin hearing evidence in the case on Friday.
The 21-year-old Montreal resident is charged with the first-degree murder of Clémence Beaulieu-Patry, who was fatally stabbed in front of her co-workers at a Maxi supermarket on April 10, 2016. The jury for the trial was selected last week. On Wednesday, the seven men and five women were assembled before Superior Court Justice Hélène Di Salvo at the Montreal courthouse. Di Salvo advised them the Crown was not able to make its opening statement on Wednesday, but prosecutor Catherine Perreault is scheduled to do so on Friday. The trial is expected to last five weeks.
Di Salvo used the morning to give her preliminary instructions to the jury. She advised the panel the case will likely be widely covered by the media and that they should not read, view or listen to any coverage during the trial. There were almost a dozen reporters in the courtroom as Di Salvo said this.
“Do not consider the summaries that are published by the media (to be evidence),” Di Salvo said. “You have to judge the evidence without prejudice and without sympathy toward anyone involved.”
The judge also cautioned the jury against basing what they are about to undergo on what they might have seen on televised courtroom dramas. For example, she said, the closing arguments should take much longer than they do on a TV show.
“It takes five minutes (for closing arguments) on television. It won’t take five minutes here,” Di Salvo joked. “At least I assume so.”
