A St. Albert man was found guilty of assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon stemming from an altercation that left a woman with a large gash on her leg and bruises all over her body.
Dustin Brent Decker, 24, was found guilty after the brief trial and will be sentenced in June.
The victim of the assault, a 40-year-old woman, said she and Decker had been engaged in a sexual relationship for several months when he came over on June 6, 2010.
After a day of heavy drinking by both parties, Decker tried to leave the house around 11 p.m. but could not find his keys.
After searching for them in vain, Decker went to his vehicle and the woman testified he began fiddling around with the dash and steering console. She said she thought he was trying to hotwire the car.
She testified she got into the passenger seat and told him to come inside, but he flew in to a rage, hitting her repeatedly and trying to push her out of the car.
She said she would have fled, but he pushed her and slammed the door on her leg at the same time. Decker eventually got out of the car, pulled her out, punched her repeatedly and slammed her feet in the door, she added.
The woman said she’s gone through a long recovery process, with six weeks for the bruises to fade and months for the cut on her leg to heal.
Medical records submitted at the trial and photos police took of the woman’s injuries showed the bruises on her feet, shoulders, chest and arms, as well as the gash on her upper leg.
“I was bruised everywhere,” she said. “It is ugly and I will live with it for the rest of my life.”
The woman’s 18-year-old daughter took the stand and said she ran outside when she heard her mother scream. She said she saw her mother pushed out of the car and saw Decker punch her and slam the door on her mother’s feet.
While on the stand Decker testified that he believed his keys had been hidden and said he only had a few beers during the day, not the six to 12 the two women claimed.
He said the woman got in the car and began hitting him unprovoked. He said he pushed her out and tried to slam the door, but had to try four times. It wasn’t until later that he realized he couldn’t close it because the woman’s leg was in the way, he said.
“I wanted her out of my car, that was the first thing in my mind.”
Decker’s testimony drew an intense cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison.
Morrison suggested to Decker that it would have been impossible for him not to know he was slamming the door on the woman’s leg.
In his closing statement to Judge Bruce Garriock, defence lawyer Gary Smith argued the woman’s testimony was unreliable and Decker’s actions, even if proven, did not rise to the level of the more serious charge, aggravated assault, that Decker initially faced.
Morrison argued the injuries the woman suffered, especially the large gash on her upper thigh, only make sense in her version of the story.
“You have heard a lot of evidence, but only one version makes any sense at all.”
In the end, Garriock agreed with Morrison, citing among other things the absurdity that Decker would repeatedly try to close the door, without ever looking to see why it wouldn’t close.
“I find the testimony of the accused reeks with the indicia of [incredibility]. ”
Garriock declined to convict Decker on the more serious aggravated assault charge, noting that while it was obvious he caused the injury and used the door as a weapon, it was not possible to know exactly how the injury occurred and that he had some concerns with the victim’s testimony.
Decker’s sentencing will take place June 13, following a pre-sentence report.
