Verdict today
Tossing paper plate isn’t assault, lawyer argues
An alleged assault with a paper plate, video with no sound and a trial with no key witness testimony.
These are some of the unusual issues a St. John’s judge will have to contend with in determining whether 46-year-old Nelson Hart is guilty of assaulting and threatening prison guards.
Judge Lois Skanes is expected to give her verdict this morning in provincial court in St. John’s.
Hart was charged as a result of an incident on the segregation unit at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary Jan. 30, 2014.
The split-screen video, which was played during Hart’s trial Tuesday, had no audio, but showed officers approaching Hart’s cell.
Hart, who was sleeping, gets up off his bed and takes medication with a glass of water.
He then appears to yell and point at the guards. He hurls a paper plate towards the door. It blows back, and other items on the plate — a milk carton and utensils — fly out the door.
Corrections officers Krista Williams and Stephen Woolridge testified that while on their rounds to administer medications, Hart refused to open his mouth to show proof that he had swallowed his pills, which is protocol.
When they insisted, Hart became irate.
Williams said Hart threatened Richard Sansford, the other corrections officer with them, saying, “First chance I gets, I’m going to stab you up.”
Before they could close the cell door, she said, Hart threw the paper plate, and debris from the plate scattered across the floor.
She said Hart often threatened corrections officers, but couldn’t be specific.
“With inmate Hart, it was a constant day-to-day struggle,” she said, adding he had been disciplined internally multiple times.
Woolridge testified that Hart, “Just became furious. He went from zero to 60.”
He said that after Hart threatened Sansford, Hart continued to scream and shout.
“Here’s my problem,” defence lawyer Jeff Brace said. “Are we just hell-bent on Nelson Hart? Nobody acted like their life was in danger. You consider throwing a paper plate an assault?”
“If anybody throws anything, it’s an assault, especially if it’s associated with a threat,” Woolridge replied.
Sansford testified via video link from Halifax, where he now lives, but due to technical issues he was unable to view the video.
Skanes insisted that Sansford testify in person, noting, “He is the main witness.”
Crown presecutor Mike Murray then decided not to call Sansford as a witness and, instead, rested his case.
It surprised Brace, who opted not to call Hart to the stand and also rested his case.
In final arguments, Murray said, “There’s sufficient evidence to meet the burden of proof.”
He said the paper plate obviously would not cause injury, “Although my mother might say anything can take out an eye, but the court is not my mother.”
As for uttering threats, he said it’s not necessary for the victim to testify or to prove that Hart planned to carry out the threat.
“He had to intend that the words be taken seriously,” Murray said. “And looking at his demeanour, it’s clear he did.”
Brace said the absence of the key witness leaves reasonable doubt about the threats allegation.
He said Hart threw the paper plate in frustration.
“Whether it was directed at anyone is debatable,” he said.
In 2007, Hart was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2002 drowning deaths of his daughters in Gander Lake, but that verdict was overturned on appeal in 2012.
In July 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Hart’s confession to undercover police officers posing as mobsters in a Mr. Big sting operation was inadmissible and could not be used against him.
As a result, in August 2014, the Crown withdrew the two first-degree murder charges and Hart was released from prison.