Kick to man’s abdomen may not have been fatal: lawyer

An Edmonton security guard doesn’t dispute that he kicked a man who died of abdominal trauma, but his lawyer argued Wednesday evidence at trial doesn’t prove that the kick was the fatal blow.

The assertion was made during closing arguments at a trial for Sheldon Russell Bentley, 37, who is accused of manslaughter and robbery in the July 2016 death of Donald Doucette, 51.

Crown prosecutor Kristen Logan argued that witness accounts and video evidence prove Doucette, who was battling an alcohol addiction, was asleep in an alley behind an inner-city strip mall when he was approached by a security guard, who tried unsuccessfully to wake him.

That guard called his partner, Bentley, for help, and was on the phone when Bentley took a $20 bill out of Doucette’s hand, then stomped on the man’s abdomen.

The two guards then escorted Doucette to a nearby embankment, where he later died despite efforts by emergency responders to save him.

Logan said Wednesday the evidence points to Bentley’s kick as being the “sole and significant contributing factor” in Doucette’s death.

“Stomping on an unconscious person’s stomach shows the risk here of bodily harm was objectively foreseeable,” Logan said.

Defence lawyer Amanda Hart-Dowhun did not call any evidence at trial, and opened her closing arguments by saying she would not attempt to “justify or defend” her client’s behaviour on the day he assaulted Doucette.

In an interview with police, Bentley admitted he’d kicked Doucette fairly hard, but he recalled it being in the man’s side — not in the centre of the stomach, which is where a medical examiner determined the fatal injury was located.

Bentley also admitted to taking $20 from the man.

Hart-Dowhun said her client’s recollection of the location of the kick should be trusted because he was candid about many aspects of the events that were unfavourable to him.

Hart-Dowhun said that on the day of his death, Doucette was alone in a rough neighbourhood where a lot of violence occurs, and that the fatal blow could have come from another source and occurred before or after Bentley kicked him.

Doucette’s daughter, who sat in court during the trial, has described her father as an upbeat, jovial man who had sought treatment for his alcohol addiction just days before his death.

Court of Queen’s Justice Paul Belzil has reserved his verdict in the case and said he expects to deliver it Thursday afternoon.