HAMILTON - Jurors into their first full day of deliberations on Friday requested a monitor to review a deathbed interview with one of the alleged victims in an unprecedented first-degree murder case involving the spread of AIDS.
Johnson Aziga, 52, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and 11 of aggravated sexual assault amid allegations he had unprotected sex with women despite knowing he carries the virus that can lead to AIDS.
One of the women, who can only be identified as S.B., died of AIDS-related cancers three weeks after police videotaped an interview with her about her relationship with Aziga.
"We would like to request the TV screen in order to view the taped interview of S.B. on Nov. 19, 2003," the jury asked Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Lofchik in a handwritten note.
Lofchik immediately granted the request, along with a second one for a transcript of some witness evidence.
The jury retired Friday night without reaching a verdict and is to resume deliberations Saturday morning.
Prosecutors alleged that Aziga failed to tell his partners of his HIV-positive status, even though he had been aware of it since 1996 and was under public-health orders to do so.
In the police interview played at trial, the cancer-ravaged S.B., 51, said Aziga had never told her about his HIV infection during their summer of romance in 2000.
"No, he never did. Not at any time," the bed-ridden woman said in a barely audible voice.
"Did you ever bring that up?" the officer asks.
"Unfortunately not," S.B. replied.
Court also heard how she became romantically involved with Aziga, of Hamilton, whom she met at work with the Ontario government in Toronto.
In common with other alleged victims, S.B. said she would not have had sex with him had she known he was infected.
The trial, which began in October, is the first involving someone being charged with lethally infecting partners with HIV. The prosecution said the sex could not have been consensual because Aziga did not inform them of his health status.
In all, seven women tested positive for HIV after sleeping with Aziga. S.B. and another woman died of what the Crown argued were AIDS-related cancers.
The jury of nine men and three women must decide whether the infections and deaths can be conclusively linked to Aziga.
The defence argued Aziga was depressed and ill and did not have the state of mind to deliberately endanger the lives of his sexual partners.
The jury began its deliberations Thursday afternoon after receiving final instructions from Lofchik.
Aziga, a native of Uganda and a former employee of Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2003.
