Ray Stacey elects judge alone for newest charges
Ray Stacey has elected to have his attempted murder and other charges heard in Supreme Court by a judge alone.
Stacey, 26, made a brief appearance in provincial court in St. John’s Friday morning via videolink from Her Majesty’s Penitentiary.
Stacey has also opted for preliminary hearings, which will happen over three days starting Aug. 28.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said officers arrived at a Paradise home early in May in response to a 911 call of an assault at the home. The male suspect ran from the scene to a nearby business and jumped into an occupied parked vehicle, police say.
Police report the man tried to drive the vehicle with the female passenger still inside, but he lost control and crashed on the parking lot.
The car was spotted in the Lawton’s drugstore parking lot after it crashed into a concrete pole base.
A witness told The Telegram that a man had apparently tried to steal the vehicle. The witness said the man then ran from the scene after the car struck the pole.
Police said the man ran away after he crashed the car, but was followed by a witness and arrested moments later.
A witness told The Telegram that a shirtless male had run from the area of the first incident at Lawton’s and then attempted to carjack another car, with a female occupant, in the nearby Irving parking lot.
The witness said the man was unable to get the car started and when that attempt failed, he ran from the area, but was nabbed by police a short distance away.
Two years ago, Stacey was acquitted by a jury of seconddegree murder in the stabbing death of his coworker, 41-yearold Clifford Comerford. The pair were working as chicken catchers and were both in a van that was set to take them to work in Harbour Grace for a night shift in January 2015 when Comerford was killed.