Thursday, February 20, 2014

Bulletin; Ronnie Munoz-Hernandez: Ontario; Following his mistrial on a charge of fatally injuring his girlfriend's 5-month-old son, both defence and crown counsel are asking for the trial to be continued on a judge alone basis; The defence argues that the infant's mother inflicted the injuries. Reporter Sam Pazanno; The Toronto Sun.


STORY: "Accused baby-sitter may go judge alone for murder retrial," by reporter Sam Pazzano, published by the Toronto Sun on February 19, 2014.

GIST: " The murder trial of a babysitter accused of killing his girlfriend’s infant son may be transformed into a judge-alone trial, the Toronto Sun has learned. Two weeks ago, a mistrial was declared in the second-degree murder trial of Ronny Munoz-Hernandez after a jury couldn’t reach an unanimous verdict. Justice Nola Garton declared the mistrial after the jurors sent their second note in two days of deliberations, saying they had reached an impasse in deciding whether Munoz-Hernandez caused the November 2010 death of Adriel Garcia. Crown attorney Laura Bird and defence lawyer Paula Rochman asked Garton Wednesday if she would continue the trial on a judge-alone basis, possibly in June after the judge reviewed transcripts of the evidence. Garton agreed, pending approval by the Ministry of the Attorney General to forego a second jury trial.........The Crown alleged that Da Silva left Munoz-Hernandez with a healthy baby and the next day the five-month-old boy was battling for his life. Rochman argued that Da Silva should be blamed for the injuries that ultimately killed her baby. In her closing address, Rochman blamed Da Silva, accusing the woman of lying to implicate her boyfriend to “save herself” from prosecution after originally lying to police that a babysitter named Clara was caring for her child that day. Lawyers for both sides will be back in court on March 24."

The entire story can be found at:

 http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/19/accused-babysitter-may-go-judge-alone-for-murder-retrial

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.