Man found guilty of knife attack

A Prince George man was found guilty Friday of assault with a weapon for cutting a former friend with a knife during an altercation in a local low-rent hotel.

In issuing his decision following a one-day trial for Ryan Thomas McConnell, 38, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly set out an odd set of circumstances leading up to the Jan. 17, 2013 incident.

At one point McConnell's adversary, Christopher LeBlanc, was in a relationship with McConnell's mother. When that ended, McConnell invited him to live where he was residing, "a hotel for some of the less fortunate members of society," said Romilly, who did not provide the hotel's name.

LeBlanc moved into a room across the hall from McConnell but soon began to complain about the smoke affecting his asthma, even though he allegedly knew it was a smoking hotel.

Irritated by LeBlanc's complaints, McConnell resorted to a "most unusual method for venting his frustration," Romilly said.

McConnell began putting messages on LeBlanc's door that he knew LeBlanc would see every time he came out of his room.

Through the messages, McConnell announced that LeBlanc was "on probation until the end of the month," was "uninvited" to his birthday party in February, warned there will be no drinks or smokes for LeBlanc and told him to not even knock on his door.

On the day of the confrontation, the two had gone to St. Vincent DePaul for breakfast. After they returned to the hotel at 9 a.m. they got into an argument that escalated into a consensual fight. LeBlanc testified he got the better of McConnell and went back to his room because he thought it was over.

But McConnell continued to make a commotion and LeBlanc soon came back out and told him to shut up. He then noticed a knife in McConnell's hand, told him to put it down and then cut his hand when he tried to take it away from him.

McConnell then lunged at LeBlanc and cut his face in the process.

When McConnell took the stand in his defence, he testified he thought LeBlanc had gone into his room to find a weapon of his own and retrieved the knife in response.

McConnell also claimed LeBlanc had a history of violence toward his mother, which Romilly found at odds with McConnell's prior statement that he wanted LeBlanc to live in the hotel because he was honest and McConnell did not want to be surrounded by thieves.

Romilly also rejected McConnell's assertion that he cut LeBlanc only when LeBlanc beared down on him.

Romilly found McConnell guilty of assault causing bodily harm rather than the higher conviction of aggravated assault.

Sentencing was put over to a later date to allow a pre-sentence report with a psychiatric risk assessment to be completed.