Judge issues guilty verdicts
Crown to seek risk assessment for Sydney Mines man
SYDNEY — A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge delivered guilty verdicts Wednesday to a Sydney Mines man who stood trial on charges including aggravated assault.
Justice Kevin Coady issued nine guilty verdicts against Raymond Shawn Daniel Leroy, 46, on two counts of aggravated assault and single counts of forcible confinement, assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats, pointing a firearm (a shotgun), aggravated assault with a weapon, robbery and using a weapon in the commission of an offence.
Coady returned a not-guilty verdict on a charge of dangerous driving. He also found Leroy not guilty of attempted murder but guilty of the included offence of aggravated assault.
Three counts of breaching court orders were dismissed earlierin the trial.
The offences occurred in Sydney Mines, Florence, North Sydney and Membertou on Aug. 29, 2020.
The judge-alone trial began Feb. 13. Prosecutors Kathryn Pentz and Peter Harrison called evidence from 33 witnesses, while Leroy, who represented himself, called two witnesses.
After Coady completed reading his decision, Harrison advised the court that the Crown will be seeking to have Leroy declared a dangerous offender, which could result in an indefinite jail sentence.
In a first step towards such a designation, the Crown is seeking to have Leroy undergo a risk assessment, and a hearing needs to be held within 30 days to determine if the court will grant the assessment request. No date has yet been set for the hearing.
PREVIOUSLY SENTENCED
Leroy was sentenced in 2023 to serve a 10-year sentence in connection with another shooting in which three people were injured.
In that case, he was convicted on two counts of aggravated assault and single counts of break and enter, carrying a weapon (a shotgun) for a dangerous purpose and breaching a court order.
The charges stemmed from a shooting incident inside a Barrington Street apartment in Sydney Mines on Dec. 22, 2019. The shooting injured three people, two males and a female, who were treated in hospital for minor injuries.
The victims were hit with pellets from the shotgun and suffered foot, elbow and leg injuries.
At the conclusion of Wednesday’s hearing in Sydney, Leroy requested Coady to send him back to the Springhill Institution to continue to serve his sentence rather than remain at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility. Coady agreed to send him back.
Before leaving the courtroom after closing arguments were made, Leroy thanked the prosecutors.
“Thank you, Peter and Kathy,” Leroy said. “It has been an experience.”
Leroy was arrested in August 2020 in connection with two shootings and the robbery of an off-road, side-byside vehicle.
One of the shooting victims was Leroy’s former commonlaw partner, Ashley Musgrave, who was shot in the leg. Also shot was Tim Jessome who was struck in the stomach and back. The weapon was described as a shotgun.
In her closing argument, Pentz, the chief Crown attorney for Cape Breton, said it was apparent throughout the trial that Leroy’s position was that he was not the shooter.
“His denial does not exonerate him,” Pentz said.
She said Leroy also pointed out the Crown had not produced a weapon and had no eyewitness who saw him fire a weapon.
While Leroy was correct in his assessment, Pentz said the absence of such evidence was not fatal to the Crown case.
VICTIM TESTIMONY
She referred to the testimony of Musgrave, who said Leroy first attacked her with the butt end of the shotgun by smashing it several times into her face. She testified further that as she fled on foot to escape him, Leroy shot her in the back of her left leg.
Jessome was the second shooting victim. His trial testimony was vague, as he told the court he doesn’t remember who shot him in his driveway.
But a police officer testified that shortly after arriving on scene, Jessome told him that Ray Leroy had shot him.
In recorded phone calls from the correctional facility, Leroy is heard telling his brother to tell Jessome that he will wipe out the “17” he owes to Leroy.
Pentz said the inference is that Jessome owed Leroy money and could be as much as $1,700. Pentz said the offer to wipe out was an attempt to influence the witness.
“The evidence is overwhelming that he had a gun,” Pentz said, adding that witnesses Meghan Ivey and Derek Seymour also testified to seeing Leroy with a gun in the side-by-side.
Musgrave said after she was attacked by Leroy in her vehicle, he commandeered the vehicle and was driving very fast while threatening to kill her and kill the men who he was accusing her of sleeping with.
Three other witnesses testified to seeing a man standing over Musgrave pointing a rifle at her as she lay on the side of the road bleeding from her leg injury.
At the time of his arrest, Leroy was found in possession of Musgrave’s van key. The van was found abandoned on a dirt road.
Two other witnesses testified to seeing Leroy on the Old Branch Trail, saying he asked them if they had a lighter. Neither individual had what was requested.
Pentz said the area is heavily wooded and would be an ideal location to dispose of unwanted items like a gun.
Pentz again referred to some jail phone calls between Leroy and Musgrave in which he urged her not to give a statement and not to talk to police. He told Musgrave to just say she can’t remember.
‘ON A RAMPAGE’
“He was on a rampage,” Pentz said. “His efforts to have her not testify are because he knows full well that he was the shooter.”
Pentz explained that the attempted murder charge involved the Jessome shooting, given the highly sensitive area, the stomach, where he was shot.
In his submission to the court, Leroy said the Crown lacked key evidence such as a weapon, eyewitnesses and forensics.
He said some of the witnesses suggested the weapon may have been a .22-calibre rifle and offered different descriptions of what they saw. Also, he said, some of the witnesses offered incorrect descriptions of himself, including the wrong height and weight.
He said the testimony of his two witnesses is sufficient to cast doubt on the credibility and reliability of Musgrave’s testimony.
Leroy told the court there was a lot of contradictory testimony from Crown witnesses, which should cause the court concern.