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Ex-girlfriend testifies at trial |
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Written by Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008 |
The trial for Danton Lamonte Chaboyer, 34, charged with aggravated assault, was adjourned late Wednesday morning until June 4 to fix a date for continuation.
As the proceedings resumed earlier Wednesday morning, the Crown called as a witness the ex-girlfriend of both the accused and Richard David McArthur, 42, the man paralyzed after an altercation June 3, 2007 near Esther’s Inn from which the charge arose.
Dianna Holden, 34, now a resident of the Lower Mainland, said she was with Chaboyer from 2001 through Nov. 1, 2004, and there were two children from the relationship.
After the relationship broke off with Chaboyer, McArthur was just a neighbour at first at her house in the central part of the city. But then they were closer between Nov. 2004 and Oct. 2005, although she said she would not describe their relationship as quite to the level of boyfriend-girlfriend. They joined in a business venture, but that went sour and there was a court judgement in McArthur’s favour, she said. Later she made a complaint about McArthur concerning stalking and harassment, court heard.
Holden told Crown counsel Chaboyer called her on June 3, 2007, between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. “He said he’d got into an altercation with Richard McArthur and broken his neck and his vertebrae in seven or eight places,” Holden said.
Holden said her mother monitored part of the telephone conversation.
“He said they got into a fight at Esther’s Inn and he’d put him in a chokehold,” she said. “He said he did it on purpose.”
She went on to say, “He was wanting me back because he’d done away with Richard.”
Holden said Chaboyer also contacted her more recently to try to persuade her not to testify in the trial.
Defence counsel Keith Jones questioned Holden closely. “You have an imagination,” he said. “You fabricated all that to make yourself look important, didn’t you?”
“That’s not true,” Holden firmly responded.
Jones said Chabot had called only about seeing the children. “You’re lying,” he told Holden.
“No, I’m not,” she said.
The next Crown witness, Prince George Const. Bayani Cruz, said he arrived at the scene of the altercation June 3 at 1:35 p.m. and McArthur was in a vehicle. At that point Chaboyer was trying to wake McArthur up by calling out his name, Const. Cruz said.
“He said his friend was very drunk, and his friend tried to fight him but he didn’t fight back because he was very intoxicated,” the officer said.
“I asked Mr. Chaboyer if he (McArthur) was OK,” Const. Cruz continued. “There was no response. He was just breathing and there was some moaning.”
A few minutes later, when Const. Cruz asked a fellow constable to arrest Chaboyer for assault, Chaboyer became verbally abusive with him.
“He was very aggressive and very angry in a threatening manner -- verbally combative,” Const. Cruz said.
After the morning break in court proceedings, the Crown and defence agreed there should be an adjournment in the trial to allow typed transcripts to be provided for an expected medical expert witness to analyze along with medical evidence.
Then such a witness could offer expert testimony about injuries sustained during the June 3 altercation and be cross-examined, court heard.
Prince George provincial court judge Michael Gray granted the adjournment, which the judicial case manager later set for June 4.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 21 May 2008 )
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