Missing package, inconsistent witness

McCarthy hammer attack trial enters second day

Day 2 of the trial for alleged armed robber Ryan McCarthy continued Tuesday in P.E.I. Supreme Court.

McCarthy appeared in the Summerside courtroom to answer to charges from an incident last January, in O’Leary.

The first witnesses called in Tuesday’s proceedings were employees of the Shell gas station who were working the night of Jan 29. They confirmed McCarthy entered the store around 7 p.m. Next, the court heard from a third person involved in the event. A youth who said he waited in the car while the alleged robbery and assault took place.

The youth has already served three months in juvenile detention for his part in the alleged crimes. He cannot be identified because of his age.

He said McCarthy and another other person told him they were going to buy cigarettes from Gail Meunier.

“But they had the masks on, so I knew it wasn’t good,” he testified. He alleged the two attackers left McCarthy’s car at a main street parking lot, walked through a patch of woods, and returned within 10 minutes.

When the men returned to the car, one of them carried a large package, partially wrapped in Christmas paper. He put the package in the trunk. McCarthy threw a hammer in the back seat, said the witness, and then drove him to a friend’s house.

When questioned by police Jan. 30, the youth attempted to protect the others and withheld information from police in his initial statements. Defence counsel spent over an hour cross-examining the witness, picking away at his version of events and pulling out inconsistencies in his police statements.

The police transcripts were admitted as evidence.

Also during Tuesday’s proceedings, the Crown questioned the defense’s assistance from a woman in the gallery. McCarthy’s mother had been keeping notes and guiding lawyer Robert Rideout’s questioning. She continued to advise Rideout throughout the day.

An RCMP member who arrested and interviewed McCarthy took the witness stand mid-afternoon.

The court then entered a voirdire subject to a publication ban.

On Day 1 of the trial before Supreme Court Justice Tracey Clements, court was told McCarthy entered the home of Gail Meunier and her daughter, Louise Barlow, attacking Meunier with a hammer and stealing cash from her purse.

A package was also taken from the premises, this information was withheld from pubic knowledge until the trial. The events occurred on Pate Garden Drive in O’Leary. McCarthy is alleged to have entered the home with a second person, but that suspect cannot be identified because they were a youth at the time of the alleged incident.

The court heard from the chief investigator, RCMP Const. Stephanie Labrecque, who gave an overview of the investigation. After Labrecque left the witness stand, several other RCMP officers who worked on the investigation were called to testify.

The witnesses offered a brief description of Meunier’s injuries that Const. Dave Brown, tasked with photographing the lacerations, described as “pretty severe injuries.”

That night in the hospital, he measured each strike, indicating they were over an inch in diameter and ‘curved’.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.