A Provincial Court judge in Prince George found a man not guilty on June 10 of possessing a machete for a dangerous purpose and wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Stanley Albert Wilson, born in 1964, was also charged with assault with a weapon, but the Crown asked Judge Peter McDermick to acquit him of that charge.
Court heard that Wilson, who was tried in October and January, carried the machete on Dec. 14, 2023 when he had an altercation with a driver on Turner Road.
The driver testified that he noticed Wilson in the middle of the road, swinging the machete. So he stopped his Jeep, rolled down the window and asked Wilson what he was doing.
“The accused replied, in essence, get out and find out,” McDermick said, recounting the driver’s testimony. “The accused raised his machete up, which [the driver] perceived as a threat. He began to drive off. The accused then hit the back of his Jeep with the machete. (The driver) got out of his car to confront the accused. They were almost face-to-face. He told him to drop his machete. He did not. He went to raise up his arm, and then (the driver) pushed him away, at which point the accused ran off.”
Wilson testified in his own defence that he never intended to use the machete as a weapon and had earlier been accosted by a carload of youths. He said he used the machete to cut a path for a shortcut to the Nechako library branch in the Hart Centre Mall where he used the Internet. He also claimed that he struck the Jeep by accident when he slipped on the icy road and eventually dropped the machete when he ran into a forested area because he feared he might fall onto it.
The Prince George RCMP officer who arrived on Turner Road in an unmarked police vehicle with lights on testified that he drew his firearm, had his finger on the trigger and pointed it at Wilson. He said he identified himself as a police officer and yelled at Wilson to stop because he was under arrest. Wilson fled into the woods.
“The assertion that he didn't hear the officer is not unreasonable or astonishing in light of the full body of evidence before me,” McDermick said.
The judge decided the Crown did not prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt. Same for the charge of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. McDermick said there was no independent evidence to contradict Wilson’s “unlikely narrative.”
“While I do not fully believe the evidence of the accused, all things considered, I find myself with a lingering, reasonable doubt,” McDermick concluded.
