Trial begins for two accused in Manners murder
Posted March 21, 2011 6:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The trial for two men accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a high school student began Monday.
Jordan Manners, 15, was killed on May 23, 2007 inside his high school, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute.
The two accused were 17 years old at the time of the murder and can only be named as J.W. and C.D. under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. They have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The trial was due to start in January, but was delayed because nearly half of the prospective jurors failed to attend court. About 600 people were selected for jury duty, but 270 didn’t show up.
On Monday, Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon told jurors there was an earlier trial that ended in a mistrial, but that has “absolutely zero relevance to your task.”
The jury is scheduled to tour C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on April 2.
Manners was the first person to ever be killed inside a Toronto school. After his death, police officers – known as school resource officers, or SROs – began patrolling schools in both the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto District Catholic School Board.
The TDSB appointed Julian Falconer, a well-known human rights lawyer, to chair a safety advisory panel for the board. The SROs were just one of his recommendations, which also included a student safety hotline. The 1,000-page report also found that sexual harassment is occurring at “alarming rates,” and is largely unreported.
