Nor was it, as Lecuyer also purported, a setup by the police.
It was a drug deal gone awry.
Simple as that, according to the judge who convicted Lecuyer in provincial court in Corner Brook Wednesday.
Lecuyer, 36, was found guilty of assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, two counts of uttering threats and once charge of breaching a recognizance.
He was arrested and charged after it was reported to police that Lecuyer had used a baseball bat to attack a man visiting Lecuyer’s home last Oct. 9. He also threatened to kill both the man and a woman accompanying him if they went to the police about the violent incident.
According to the victims, they went to Lecuyer’s home to buy cocaine. After a verbal exchange about showing Lecuyer the money first, the couple went to leave. The man was then struck in the head from behind with the bat by Lecuyer.
The beating continued with blows to the rib and thigh areas of the man’s body.
The man later told police Lecuyer robbed him of money after the attack.
A trial was held in late February and early March. On Wednesday, Judge Catherine Allen-Westby delivered her verdict, finding Lecuyer guilty of all the offences except an armed robbery charge.
Allen-Westby said the Crown had not sufficiently established Lecuyer took any money from the man during the incident.
Regarding the attack, the judge said the testimony of the victim and the woman accompanying him was more believable than Lecuyer’s.
In his defence, Lecuyer asserted at one point the two had come to rob him. He later accused the police of putting the pair up to going to Lecuyer’s home.
Lecuyer has been in custody since his arrest a week after the incident last October. His lawyer, Shelley Senior, asked for a sentencing hearing to take place as soon as possible since her client is incarcerated.
Crown attorney Adam Sparkes insisted that a pre-sentence report be prepared to assist in the sentencing process because the Crown has little knowledge of Lecuyer’s background.
It usually takes six to eight weeks for a pre-sentence report to be done.
Despite Senior’s objection to a lengthy wait, Allen-Westby agreed a pre-sentence report would be useful and hoped the generation of the report could be expedited under the circumstances.
The matter will be called again for sentencing submissions April 28.
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