A Prince George man has been found not guilty of deliberately driving over one of his adversaries, but faces sentencing on other charges from a confrontation with two men in a local parking lot two years ago.
Luke Moore, 21, was also found not guilty in Prince George provincial court on Monday of attempting to use a machete on the other of the two, but was found guilty of using his pickup truck as a weapon by using the door to pin the man against another pickup truck parked next to him.
Moore was also found guilty of uttering a threat and of dangerous driving from the July 13, 2013 incident that began when an argument over the location of a pickup truck that was up for sale escalated into a yelling match.
When Moore was invited to step out of his truck for a fight, he opted to drive away, but as he backed out of his parking space, he stalled the truck and then mistakenly put it into drive, Judge Michael Brecknell found.
He moved forward far enough to knock over one of the men, who suffered minor injuries.
Moore then took off at a high rate of speed out of the parking lot, almost rolling the truck according to a witness, leading to the conviction for dangerous driving.
On that aspect, Brecknell noted two nearby businesses were open at the time and Moore could have gone into either one to seek help rather than take off so quickly.
Moore had admitted to threatening to cut a limb off one of the men but maintained he did so only after the man had stuck an arm through the window of his truck and struck him several times.
The man claimed Moore then pulled out a machete.
None was ever found in his truck, though he did turn one over to the RCMP that he had stored in a closet of his home.
Brecknell found there was "no air of reality" to Moore's claim that he was under threat when he opened the driver's door of his vehicle and leveraged his legs to pin one of the men against the pickup of the other adversary which was parked next to him.
That prompted the other man to get out of his vehicle, go over to Moore's pickup and open the passenger side door.
Each had called Moore out for a fight and Brecknell found neither indicated it would be a one-on-one affair.
