Accused stabber recalls nothing
Doctors tells court concussion possible
Ashley White was in a “very anxious” state and suffering from a concussion shortly after she stabbed her boyfriend, an Ottawa neurologist testified Friday.
Dr. Marc-André Beaulieu said White had registered “normal” on a CT scan, but that did not necessarily mean she hadn’t suffered a mild brain injury at the hands of Patrick Halcro, who had punched her repeatedly before she stabbed him in the chest with a steak knife.
Mild brain trauma is the lowest category of damage, said Beaulieu, but he agreed with White’s lawyer Israel Gencher that it was “not a trivial matter.”
Bar manager White, 25, is charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault in the attack on her 36-year-old boyfriend in the early hours of July 18, 2010. She has pleaded not guilty to both charges and is being tried by jury.
White is claiming she has no memory of the stabbing or the aftermath, including her own arrest, hospital treatment and initial incarceration at Ottawa police headquarters and the Ottawa Detention Centre.
Beaulieu said he had never encountered a case of retrospective loss of memory.
“I haven’t seen it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
Crown prosecutor Carl Lem is alleging White was fully aware of what she was doing when she stabbed Halcro, a veteran of Afghanistan who has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder.
“You weren’t content to let the police and the law deal with Mr. Halcro,” he has told her. “You decided you would be the judge and jury.”
There are numerous ways mild brain injury can impact a victim, said Beaulieu.
“(A victim) can be conscious and say some words and forget them afterwards,” he said.
But, he added, it was typical that in mild brain injury memory is restored inside 24 hours.
Hear an audio recording of Ashley White’s 911 call at ottawacitizen.com/city