Preliminary inquiry underway for Ray Stacey
Stacey is facing attempted murder, eight other charges
The preliminary inquiry into attempted murder and other criminal charges faced by Ray Stacey got underway in St. John’s Tuesday.
Stacey, 26, is facing a total of eight charges, laid last May: the attempted murder of a woman, as well as charges of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, assault, forcible confinement, robbery, theft of a motor vehicle and breach of a court order.
There are multiple victims alleged to be involved.
Provincial court Judge James Walsh will oversee the hearing, which is set to happen over three days, after which he’ll determine if there’s enough evidence to send the case to trial.
If so, Stacey has already chosen for the trial to be heard by judge alone.
Stacey has faced a serious trial before, in an unrelated case. Two years ago he 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.
Stacey’s current charges stem from a report of an assault at a home in Paradise last May. Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers arrived at the home in response to a 911 call of an assault. That’s when, police say, the male suspect ran from the scene to a nearby business and jumped into an occupied parked vehicle.
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.