A Prince George man was found guilty Friday of assault with a weapon after a judge concluded he chose to wield a knife when he could have locked his apartment door to avoid a confrontation.
During a trial on the matter, Darcy Kenneth Leroy Larson, 47, denied he even had a knife when three people showed up March 25, 2016 at the Ospika Boulevard building but in issuing her verdict, judge Cassandra Malfair found otherwise.
According to testimony, Larson had gotten into an argument with his former common-law spouse. She left but forgot the keys to her car and her purse and enlisted her brother and his girlfriend to help retrieve them.
When the trio showed up at the building, Larson was standing on the balcony of his unit shouting at the brother and challenging him to a fight, the court had heard. When they reached his door, Larson opened it and lunged at the brother with the knife but did not make contact.
In deciding Larson committed the act, Malfair noted the brother and his girlfriend gave an accurate description of a steak knfe police later found in the apartment, right down to the serrated edge and pointed tip, even though there was no evidence they had ever been inside the home before the event.
Larson also claimed the trio had tried to force their way into the apartment and he mistakenly assumed the door was locked. But Malfair found the story conflicted with his statement that the door was routinely left unlocked because there was only one set of keys among the three people who actually lived there.
"I find that he in fact was the one who opened the door as the witnesses described because he was the one who wanted to confront [the brother]," Malfair said.
A charge of assaulting his ex-common law during their argument was stayed due to a lack of evidence as were counts of using the weapon against her and the brother's girlfriend during the subsequent confrontation. Malfair found Larson's primary intent was to go after the brother.
Sentencing was adjourned to a later date.
