Former jail guard convicted for knife attack

‘Frenzy of slashing and wounding’ over child-support dispute

AMHERST, N.S. — A judge has found a former Amherst jail guard guilty of aggravated assault for attacking his ex-wife’s boyfriend with a knife because he believed his child-support payments were supplementing their lifestyle.

David Alexander Baxter was charged with having a knife in his possession for the purpose of committing an offence, wounding Katie O’neil, thereby committing aggravated assault, and the attempted murder of Todd Smith by stabbing and slashing him with a knife.

“On June 1, 2017, David Baxter inflicted terrible injuries on Todd Smith. These could easily have resulted in his death,” Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Hunt said in a written decision.

Baxter and O’neil used to be married.

“They have three children together and in June 2017 shared custody,” Hunt said. “There was a child-support order requiring maintenance payments from Mr. Baxter, who was a correctional officer. Ms. O’neil had a modest income working seasonally.”

Smith had been the couple’s neighbour before they split up.

“After separation, Smith and O’neil were in a relationship which was ongoing in June 2017,” said the judge.

Baxter testified he had no issue with the relationship.

“The issue appeared to be that Baxter felt he was unfairly subsidizing the lifestyle of O’neil and Smith with his child-support payments,” Hunt said. “When his payments went into arrears, the Maintenance Enforcement Program began to garnishee his wages.”

Smith testified that during his relationship with O’neil, Baxter threatened him, but he never took it seriously.

He knew the former couple had argued over money.

“These (arguments) centred on Baxter’s view that he was paying an amount for support which was unreasonable. Baxter believed and complained that Katie O’neil was voluntarily taking the summer off and living off his payments.”

Matters “came to a flashpoint” when Baxter’s wages were garnisheed, Smith told the court.

The situation flared when Baxter confronted Smith outside Smith’s home, asking when O’neil was going to get another job. He charged his ex was laid off, but didn’t intend to work until the fall.

“Her income was relevant to the amount he paid,” the court was told.

Smith testified that Baxter asked him more than once to make O’neil get a job. Smith replied it had nothing to do with him. At that point Smith recalls Baxter saying, ‘Well then, I guess, it’s just you and me big boy.’”

Smith testified Baxter grabbed him by his long hair and pulled him off the stairs where he was standing.

“He recalls seeing Baxter with a knife, which he believed came from behind his back. He recalls being stabbed almost immediately. He was taken to his knees. He never really managed to mount a defence of any sort,” the court was told.

Baxter stabbed him in the back and the neck, then twice in the chest, Smith told the court.

“And then he pulled the knife back out and started stabbing me again in the shoulders. And at that point, Katie was already coming running down the steps and she stood between us.”

Smith had 24 separate wounds or cuts.

“They were terrible. They were gruesome. And they were inflicted in a sneak attack with a very serious weapon,” said the judge.

“It was a vicious and cowardly attack on a defenceless person.”

One of Baxter and O’neil’s daughters came out screaming at her father to stop, her mother testified.

“This as much as anything appeared to break through to him,” said the judge.

O’neil’s thumb was cut during the attack, requiring 14 stitches.

A paramedic called to the scene “described (Smith’s) multiple wounds, including the exposure of the jugular vein and injuries that ranged, he said, from the head and neck down the chest and torso, left arm and inner leg. It was a frenzy of slashing and wounding.”