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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (152187)	1/17/2009 2:00:14 AM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Jurors make discovery at trial By Jana G. Pruden, Leader-PostJanuary 16, 2009 11:00 PM REGINA -- Twelve jurors inadvertently became forensic investigators as they deliberated on Friday, when they discovered new evidence while examining an exhibit. The finding put a bizarre twist into the trial of Blaine Mozylisky, who was accused of breaking into two Regina restaurants and attempting to steal ATM machines, then fleeing from police in a stolen truck and on foot. The case against Mozylisky was largely circumstantial, and, during the trial, the defence had questioned why no pieces of glass were found on Mozylisky’s clothes or boots, despite the fact that windows were smashed at both break-ins and in the stolen truck. But shortly into the jury’s deliberations on Friday, a note was sent out to the judge. “We found glass in the boots!” the jurors had written. “What can we do? (These pieces were not touched by any of us.)” The jury had sent out an envelope containing the pieces of glass, and numbered like an exhibit. The discovery threw a wrench into the proceedings, and the defence, Crown and judge spent a considerable amount of time looking at whether a mistrial would have to be declared. Ultimately, after consulting with Mozylisky, defence lawyer Jim Johnson consented to proceed with the trial as did prosecutor Randene Zielke. Justice Fred Kovach gave the jurors instructions not to speculate on the meaning of the glass, because no glass found at the crime scenes was filed as an exhibit in the trial, and therefore there could be no comparison with the glass found in the boot. Kovach said there could also be questions about the continuity of the evidence, and whether the glass was in the boot at the time of Mozylisky’s arrest or got into it some time afterward. In the end, the discovery may not have mattered. After little more than an hour of further deliberation, the jury sent out another note, this one declaring a verdict. The jury found Mozylisky guilty as charged of two counts of break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence, possession of a stolen vehicle, and failing to stop while being pursued by police. He will be back in court for sentencing in March. During the two-day trial, court heard Mozylisky went to the Four Seasons early on the morning of Jan. 29, 2008, smashed a window, and attempted to dislodge a cash machine using items including pry bars, a dolly, a ramp, and a sledgehammer. When his efforts failed, Mozylisky went to a Mr. Sub in the 1500 block of Albert Street, smashed his way inside, and redoubled his efforts to steal an ATM. A police officer responding to an alarm saw a truck at the scene, and attempted to stop it by smashing a window. Police then chased Mozylisky to northwest Regina, where he abandoned the truck. He was later apprehended after a foot chase, his beard and moustache completely frozen in the bitter cold. Though the chase was at relatively low speeds, police officers testified Mozylisky drove over a median and went through a yield sign without slowing. It was not Mozylisky’s first police chase. In 1994, a 19-year-old Mozylisky took police on a high-speed chase through Glencairn in a stolen vehicle. The chase came to a violent end when a police cruiser went through a yield sign and hit a car carrying a woman and her one-year-old daughter. Both the mother and child were severely injured in the crash. Mozylisky was later convicted of dangerous driving, and the chase prompted a review of police chase procedure. In 2003, a provincial court judge described Mozylisky, then 29, as a “lifelong criminal” while sentencing him for scamming city businesses out of about $28,000 in merchandise. “It is very clear to me that there is no reasonable prospect of you reforming yourself,” Judge Linton Smith said at the time. “You were malicious in what you did, you were premeditated in what you did and you were stealthful in what you did.” Mozylisky is currently serving a one-year sentence for beating up his teenaged niece in a dispute over a cat. leaderpost.com