Jury chosen for Renée Sweeney murder trial, set to begin Thursday in Sudbury

A jury has been chosen for the trial of the man accused of murdering Renée Sweeney 25 years ago.

Steven Wright, who is charged with second-degree murder, entered a plea of not guilty at the Sudbury Courthouse on Tuesday morning.

The 43-year-old has been held in the Sudbury Jail awaiting his trial since his arrest four years ago.

The court spent the day choosing the 14 people— 12 jurors and two alternates— who will listen to some six weeks of evidence and decide his fate.

After being selected, each of the 14 jurors was asked to turn and face Wright as they were officially sworn in. He stood and looked straight at every one of them. 

Justice Robert Gordon questioned some of the three dozen potential jurors about how much they've heard about the Sweeney murder and whether or not they've formed an opinion about the man accused of killing her.

They were also read a list of more than 40 potential witnesses who could be called to testify over the coming weeks and asked if they had any connection to any of them.

Some were dismissed because of a close connection to someone on that list or someone else directly involved in the trial, others told the court they had already made up their minds about the case and that hearing the evidence likely wouldn't change that. 

Several potential jurors said they had never heard of the Sweeney murder case, which the defence said was unlikely given the years of media coverage, especially since Wright's arrest in 2018.

The judge told the jurors to return on Thursday morning for the start of the actual trial, beginning with the opening statement from the Crown prosecutor.