Jennifer Horne’s family has waited three years for this.
The trial of Desmond Maguire, 39, and his common-law wife, Ashley Haley, 22, starts with jury selection today.
The two are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Horne, 20.
Horne was sexually assaulted and her throat was slit on New Year’s Eve, 2007. The Cole Harbour woman’s body was found by police stuffed into a closet in the couple’s Dartmouth apartment.
Wearing white ribbons, Horne’s family has appeared in court numerous times as the case was delayed and delayed again.
“Our emotions are a little bit high because it’s the same thing … nothing is moving forward,” Kathy Carroll, Horne’s stepmother, told reporters outside court last year. “We believe in the justice system, but we’re really frustrated right now.”
Lawyers for the defence recently argued they wanted a trial by judge alone, and if it had to be a jury trial, that it be moved out of Halifax because media coverage affected the jury pool.
But Justice Richard Coughlan ruled last month it would be a trial by judge and jury and it will stay in Halifax at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
