Klemenz, Matychuk found guilty
Calvin Gerald Klemenz showed little initial reaction and Thomas Randall Matychuk appeared bemused as a Regina Court of Queen’s Bench jury returned with its verdict Friday evening, finding both men guilty of breaking into a man’s home and committing aggravated sexual assault.
The six-man, six-woman jury took a little over four hours — about as long as it took Justice Catherine Dawson to instruct them earlier in the day — to reach a verdict, which came in at about 6:45 p.m.
Klemenz and Matychuk will return to court on Thursday at which time Crown and defence counsel will argue as to what sentence the men should receive.
Crown prosecutor Ryan Snyder and Klemenz’s defence lawyer, Carson Demmans, declined to comment following court on Friday. Matychuk’s lawyer, Bruce Campbell, didn’t have a firm answer as to whether an appeal is likely and said he would wait to hear the Crown’s position on sentencing before he declares what he will be requesting on his client’s behalf.
“I’m sure (the Crown is) going to ask for a significant sentence,” he said.
The charges relate to an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of March 15, 2012. During the trial, the jury heard from a number of witnesses, including the victim who, on the offence date, had been living in a camper trailer within the fenced compound of a Regina-area paving company.
That man — who can’t be identified — told court three people entered his trailer on two occasions within a short span of time, during which time he was physically assaulted and then sodomized with several objects.
The man’s injuries were severe and included a facial fracture and internal abdominal tearing that required surgery and left him with a colostomy bag for a year.
Klemenz and Matychuk had both taken the stand in their own defence, providing differing accounts of what they claimed happened that night and effectively pinning the blame on each other while each attempting to distance himself from the crime.
In Klemenz’s case, he said he hadn’t been anywhere near the compound that night and had lent his van to Matychuk. Matychuk said not only was Klemenz there, he’d been the one to commit the assault. Matychuk claimed he didn’t enter the victim’s trailer except at the end to pull Klemenz out once Matychuk learned what was going on.
The jury heard Matychuk’s blood was found on a vehicle within the compound while the victim’s DNA was located on a blue-handled hammer found in Klemenz’s shed and on a pair of track pants belonging to Klemenz.
Dawson provided a lengthy and detailed charge to the jury. In addition to going over much of the evidence in detail, she explained the relevant law pertaining to this case, including sections of the Criminal Code that deal with what it means to be a party to an offence.
“Just being there does not make a person guilty ...,” she said. “Sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The judge said the jury would have to find the men each played an active role in the offence or that one or the other aided his co-accused in committing the offence.