Friday, January 15, 2010

Annals of Trial Practice--the Witness is Vomiting!

This item comes from the CNews, dateline: Winnepeg, Canada.  Reporter Dean Pritchar's account is just so picturesque, let's let him tell it:

"Jurors were sent home early yesterday after the star witness in the murder trial of three Winnipeg men couldn't stop vomiting while under cross-examination.


'I think the record should reflect that the witness is vomiting,' said defence lawyer Jeff Nichols as Danny Simao, sitting in the witness box, threw up into a garbage can perched between his legs. Simao is testifying in the trial of his cousin Carlos Tavares, Glen Sherman Monkman, and Norris Ponce. The men are charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Minh Hong Huynh.  Simao told court Wednesday he suffers from irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux and is prone to vomiting when under stress. Nichols was questioning Simao yesterday afternoon about inconsistencies between his police statements and his testimony at a preliminary hearing when Simao put his hands to his mouth and threw up into a garbage can. Court was adjourned twice before Crown attorney Carla Dewar told Justice Brenda Keyser that Simao was too sick to continue. Keyser sent jurors home shortly after 3 p.m.

Simao is expected to be on the witness stand for up to five days[!]"
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That's going to be some tough jury duty.

1 comment:

  1. I have been attending this trial everyday so far and it's interesting how everytime this witness was questioned about his contradictory evidence, he would start to feel sick! Check out my blog for more info on this whole case: http://crimeandjusticewinnipeg.blogspot.com :)

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