Steven Wright found guilty in Rene Sweeney murder

Steven Wright has been found guiltyof stabbing 23-year-old Rene Sweeney to death in a Sudbury video store on Jan. 27, 1998.

The jury delivered its verdict in the Sudbury courthouse on Wednesday afternoon, after deliberating for a little more than a day.

A cheer went up from the side of the courtroom where the Sweeney family was sitting and people hugged each other with tears in their eyes.

There were also tears in the eyes of Wright's mother, and his father gave a meek wave, as theywatched their 43-year-old son be led out of the courtroom by police officers.

This follows some five weeks of testimony in one of the most anticipated murder trials in Sudbury's history. And it comes some 25 years after the murderand four years after Wright was first arrested and charged with murder.

WithRene's sister Kim standing next to her grinning, family friend Kelly Irvine told reporters that they were"thrilled" and"ecstatic" with the jury's decision.

"Rene Sweeney got justice today after what horribly happened 25 years ago," Irvine said.

Defence lawyer Michael Lacy didn't take questions from reporters, but in a statement, repeated his belief that the Crown's closing statement earlier this week misrepresented the evidence heard in court and may have misled the jury.

"You know this case screamed out for reasonable doubt. And I can only assume that what happened wasthe jury was affected by what we say was a very improper closing," he said.

"Of course there's also appellant level courts that may have to take a look at this case now, as a result of the Crown conduct."

Asked for reaction, Crown prosecutor Robert Parsons said:"I guess that's something Mr. Lacy will deal with. I was content with the closing that the Crown presented, which is probably the best I can say about it."

He said he was pleased that the jury "didn't rush,"took their time to consider the evidence anddidn't think "anybody was terribly surprised" that all 12 found Wright guilty.

Asked what it was like to speak with Kim Sweeney after the guilty verdict came down, Parsons said moments like that are what "gets you through long nights working to get ready for a trial like this."

"It's the reason Crown attorneys do what Crown attorneys do frankly," he said.

Sgt. Robert Weston, who was the final lead investigator on the case for the Sudbury police, said he was always confident that they would eventually catch the killer.

"This investigation has been in the public's eye and in the face of the Sudbury Regional Police andGreater Sudbury Police for 25 years," he said.

"We had the evidence, we just needed to match it up to a person, it was just a matter of when."

During the trial, the defence pointed to numerous errors made by Sudbury police in the murderinvestigation, including not properly protecting forensic evidence from contaminationand falsifying notes, but Weston didn't think that tainted this day for the police force.

"Mistakes are bound to happen. We faced them, we admitted them and we accepted them and moved forward," he told reporters.

The next step is a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled and which will be presided over by Justice Robbie Gordon.

Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence, but Gordon asked the jury for their opinion on the earliest date Wright should be eligible for parole, and they all voted for between 20 and 25 years.