Grant Tapper’s girlfriend wrapped up her testimony in provincial court Friday afternoon, acknowledging she was angry the night he is alleged to have assaulted her, but for good reason.
“I was trying to kick him out, but he didn’t want to go,” the woman explained. “I was trying everything in my power to get him to go. If he had gone, none of this would have happened. But that is not his way.”
Instead of leaving, the woman previously told the court, Tapper choked her so hard she saw stars, pushed her several times, struck her with a coffee table, picked her up and slammed her on the floor, and threatened to kill her puppies.
Tapper, 33, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and breaching court orders in connection with the March 13 incident. His trial in St. John’s has now concluded, after a number of witnesses — police officers, the complainant and her ex-husband, who testified to having witnessed the altercation — took the stand.
The court heard that Tapper and the woman began arguing outside a pool hall earlier in the evening, after the complainant got upset over Tapper using her money to buy a drink for another woman. The complainant said Tapper had pushed her up against a wall.
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Later, at the couple’s apartment, the woman said, Tapper grew violent after she tried to get him to leave, and choked, struck, kicked, slapped, threw and pushed her, as well as spit on her. She said Tapper also went into the spare room, where she had five 11-week-old Rottweiler puppies and their mother, and grabbed one of the puppies by the neck, making a twisting motion on the dog’s body and threatening to kill it.
The woman’s ex-husband, whom she said helped her escape from the apartment and get to a neighbour’s house, from where she called police, testified he witnessed the violence and saw Tapper run the bath, and believed he was going to drown the puppies.
Police officers testified that Tapper spoke to them through an apartment window when they arrived. One officer said Tapper asked, “How long will I spend in jail for drowning puppies?” Later he told them, “Do you actually think I would kill puppies?”
In her closing submissions, Crown prosecutor Robin Singleton acknowledged there were some inconsistencies in the evidence provided by the woman and her ex-husband, but said this is common in situations of domestic violence.
“It was a volatile, very intensely emotional situation. A lot happened in a short period of time,” she explained, adding the woman had testified to having injured her head.
Tapper’s comment to police alluding to not being serious about killing the dogs should not negate the threat, Singleton said.
“It’s irrelevant. It is obvious that this was not a joke and it was said with the intention to intimidate (the woman).”
Tapper’s lawyer, Michael Ralph, argued the only reliable evidence heard at trial was that of the police officers, and pointed out they had not noticed any injuries to the woman when they arrived. The woman had not included the alleged choking in her initial statement to police, Ralph said, and her ex-husband had testified he saw police taking photos of the apartment while the officers testified they had not.
Ralph said while the woman may have told Tapper to leave the apartment, his suitcase and belongings were in the bedroom.
“He was making reasonable efforts to go,” Ralph said. “Had the altercation not interfered, he could have gone.”
Ralph said while something clearly happened in the apartment that night, the woman was embellishing the details. He noted the woman had also been charged with assaulting Tapper.
Judge Mike Madden will deliver his verdict in the case on July 4.
Tapper was acquitted in November of six violent crimes against the same woman. He had originally been facing 10 charges — sexually assaulting the woman, trying to choke her and assaulting her with a hammer and a butter knife, among other allegations — but most of them were dropped after the woman recanted information she had given to police.
Tapper was found guilty on four charges, and sentenced to time served and ordered to undergo counselling for domestic violence and alcohol abuse.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
