Accused pushes for mistrial days before verdict
SASKATOON A Saskatoon King's Bench judge says he doesn't know why Gregory Mitchell Fertuck waited until 11 days before his first-degree murder trial verdict to attempt to argue for a mistrial, but he'll have to file a formal application if he wants to be heard.
The latest attempt to delay the trial, which has been ongoing since 2021, came late Monday when Justice Richard Danyliuk released a fiat indicating he had been informed that Fertuck “would like to address the court as it relates to retaining his own firearm expert and making an application for a mistrial.”
Danyliuk's trial decision had been scheduled for June 14; closing arguments were made in February.
“I do not know why this matter is being raised at such a late date when Mr. Fertuck has had months to raise it.”
In a fiat tinged with exasperation, Danyliuk wrote: “That needs to be explained by him. Mr. Fertuck should know — because I've told him many, many times — that he cannot simply stand up and ask for something.”
He noted King's Bench judges are in a mandatory meeting this week, “Thus the timing of this matter arising could not be much worse.”
After his defence team withdrew, Fertuck, 70, chose to self-represent for the latter part of his judgealone trial.
“Being self-represented, however, does not give Mr. Fertuck carte blanche to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to do it,” Danyliuk said.
Fertuck is accused of killing his estranged wife Sheree Fertuck in a gravel pit near Kenaston, Sask., on Dec. 7, 2015. She was last seen driving to haul gravel that afternoon. Her semi, keys, jacket and cellphone were left at the pit, but her body has never been found.
The case went cold for more than four years until Gregory Mitchell Fertuck was charged with murder and offering an indignity to human remains in 2019.
Most of the trial was comprised of a global voir dire to determine whether admissions Fertuck made during an undercover sting about shooting Sheree twice in the gravel pit, using a loader to move her body into his truck and leaving her body in a bluff of trees would be admissible evidence.
The operation, known as a Mr. Big sting, became evidence last September.
Fertuck had previously asked to call his own firearm expert last year, for which a lengthy adjournment was granted. When he called two defence witnesses to testify, a firearm expert wasn't one of them.
Danyliuk ordered Fertuck to file a formal application to reopen the trial to call more evidence, as well as an application for a mistrial, by Wednesday. If a proper application is filed, a hearing will take place on June 10, the fiat states. Danyliuk indicated he will try to make a ruling on it before the decision date.
“I do have a duty to ensure the trial is fair, but not just for Mr. Fertuck. The Crown is also entitled to a fair trial. Much of a trial judge's functions revolve around balancing competing interests. That is what I must do now.”