Sudbury murderer gets closer to trial on sex assault charges in North Bay

Convicted murderer Robert Steven Wright could be back before a North Bay court by the fall to answer new charges in that community.

Assuming there aren’t more delays, Robert Steven Wright could go on trial for sexual assault this fall in North Bay.

Robert Steven Wright Criminal investigators with the North Bay police have charged Robert Steven Wright, 44, with two counts of sexual assault and one count each of criminal harassment and forcible confinement. (File)

Wright is currently serving a life sentence at Millhaven Institution after being found guilty of second-degree murder in Sudbury in March 2023.

He was charged in December 2023 with two counts of sexual assault and one count each of criminal harassment and forcible confinement. The attacks are said to have taken place in 2015 and 2016 in North Bay.

The case is slowly making its way through the court system, including a hearing Friday in North Bay.

The matter was adjourned again until April 15, but four days were suggested to hold the actual trial: Sept. 8, Oct. 16, Nov. 7 and Nov. 12.

Wright will be held in North Bay during the trial. He was found guilty of the stabbing death of Sudbury university student Renee Sweeney, who was killed while working at a video store in 1998.

Robert Steven Wright HS Robert Steven Wright, seen in photos close to the time of Renee Sweeney's murder in January 1998, is on trial for second-degree murder in Sudbury. (File)

Wright escaped justice for years in that case until investigators were able to match him with DNA found at the crime scene.

He was arrested in North Bay in 2018 and charged with Sweeney’s murder. At the time, he was a 39-year-old lab tech at the North Bay Regional Heath Centre.

Correction

A previous version of the article indicated that Wright was 44 at the time of his arrest -- he was only 39. Wright was 44 years old at the time of his murder conviction.