Judge rejects race argument in rape case

‘Black person from Jamaica’ wouldn’t get a fair trial in Canada, man said

An Edmonton man who claimed he only pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his friend’s intoxicated girlfriend because he believed a black man couldn’t get a fair trial has lost his attempt to withdraw that plea.

Haldane Raynor, 29, shrugged in the prisoner’s box as his application failed Wednesday morning. His guilty plea to sexual assault causing bodily harm, entered in March, will now stand and his case will proceed to a sentencing hearing.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Dawn Pentelechuk concluded that Raynor’s guilty plea was “voluntary, unequivocal and informed” and his attempt to withdraw it was not credible. In that guilty plea, Pentelechuk pointed out, Raynor signed an agreed statement of facts and submitted reference letter from friends that spoke of his shame and regret.

He also wrote a letter of apology read in court.

“It shames me to imagine the pain that I caused,” he wrote. “I can’t begin to describe the regret I feel.”

During his attempt to withdraw his plea, Raynor asserted that “because I am a black person from Jamaica, and not a citizen, I did not think I had a chance of avoiding being convicted after a trial. I am very conscious of my race and how people think of me in Canada.”

Pentelechuk found that claim “incredible,” because Raynor had previous dealings with the justice system. In 2006, he was charged with theft and fraud, charges that were later withdrawn. Last year, Raynor was found guilty of forgery from a 2012 incident.

“In relation to the 2006 charges, the system worked as it should: the Crown withdrew the charges when the evidence did not reasonably support a conviction,” the judge wrote. “Raynor admitted he was treated fairly with his conviction in 2012.”

Raynor moved from Jamaica to Canada in 2003.

According to the agreed facts Raynor signed, the victim and her boyfriend met with Raynor after they attended an office party in December 2011. The woman had numerous drinks and was so drunk she couldn’t walk and passed in and out of consciousness.

At the end of the night, the woman’s boyfriend and Raynor stopped to pick up food, leaving her passed out in the back of the boyfriend’s vehicle. While the boyfriend waited for his food, Haldane returned to the vehicle and drove off with the woman, then raped her.

Two weeks earlier, the woman had undergone surgery for cervical cancer, and had been instructed not to have sex. The assault tore the scar tissue from her surgery, court heard.

After his guilty plea, Raynor claimed he had a valid defence because his victim was neither drunk nor unconscious. Pentelechuk rejected that.

“He claims that she consented or that he had the honest but mistaken belief that she had, yet he apparently kept his innocence to himself for months. He did not share it with his girlfriend, friends or his mother.”

Raynor’s case will return to court Sept. 2.