CALGARY – A judge has decided to allow media access to sealed information about Calgary’s worst mass murder, but won’t allow them to report any of the details until the conclusion of the trial.
Matthew de Grood, 23, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder after a violent stabbing spree at a house party on Tuesday, April 15th, 2014.
Zackariah Rathwell, 21, Jordan Segura, 22, Josh Hunter, 23, Kaitlin Perras, 23, and Lawrence Hong, 27, were celebrating the end of the school year when they were killed.
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So far, only limited details about what happened leading up to, during, and after the killings has been released.
In November, five media outlets (including Global News) applied to court for access to the contents of the Information to Obtain document (ITO) connected to the case. An ITO is a legal document which contains information police must provide to a judge in order to be granted a warrant.
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On Wednesday, Judge Tim Hironaka ruled that media would be allowed access to the sealed information, however, it will be under a publication ban to protect de Grood’s right to a fair trial.
“Judge Hironaka had to determine whether or not there was a substantial risk to the fair trial rights of Matthew de Grood that would result from the publication of that material,” said lawyer Matt Woodley. “The judge found that there were certain aspects of the evidence that in fact could result in prejudice to his fair trial rights.”
“We had argued that jurors are able, in the vast majority of cases, to put evidence that they ought not to consider out of their mind and to render a verdict solely based on the evidence that’s heard in the trial.”
The families of the victims had requested that details of the ITO be kept from the public, issuing a joint statement expressing their opposition when the application was filed last fall.
A Provincial Court Judge recently determined there was enough evidence presented during de Grood’s preliminary hearing for him to stand trial.
– With files from Nancy Hixt
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