ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A new trial date has still not been set for accused murderer Steve Bragg.
Bragg's case was called during arraignments in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John's Monday morning with the goal of setting a new date for his first-degree murder trial, which was postponed days before it had been scheduled to begin last month.
However, while the court had time available in May for the month-long trial, lawyers' schedules conflicted and they couldn't come to a resolution.
The case will be called again Tuesday afternoon, when the court will examine other matters set for trial in the coming months involving Bragg's lawyers and the Crown, in an effort to find a solution.
Bragg, 37, has pleaded not guilty in connection to the Nov. 11, 2017 death of 36-year-old Victoria Head, whose body was found in a field near O'Brien's Farm Road in the centre of St. John's. He was scheduled to go trial Jan. 20, but prosecutors requested a last-minute postponement, telling the court they had been alerted to an issue with DNA cross-contamination at the province's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Though the incident wasn't connected with Bragg's case, police had launched an investigation and were reviewing cases involving the OCME back to January 2016, including Bragg's.
Bragg's case and all other cases reviewed during the investigation were cleared.
It's believed a staff member of the OCME used a wooden swab during the autopsy of a homicide victim, taking one swab from a packet and contaminating another unused swab in the packet at the same time. That swab was reportedly used six months later during a different autopsy.
When forensic experts at the RCMP's national crime lab in Ottawa tested the second swab, they found DNA from the first homicide victim.
The contamination occurred before the province's current chief medical examiner, Dr. Nash Denic, took over from Dr. Simon Avis when he retired a little less than a year ago.
A review was undertaken after the OCME was identified as a potential source of the contamination, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice and Public Safety told The Telegram, and new standards of practice for the office were adopted as a result.
