Jason Earle was in a critical mental state when he holed himself up in his mother’s St. John’s home with a gun and threatened to shoot police.
However, there’s no evidence to prove that when the gun fired, Earle was making good on that threat, a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge has ruled.
On Friday Justice Vikas Khaladkar convicted Earle, 25, of firearms charges as well as charges of uttering threats and assaulting a police officer in connection with a standoff at a Barachois Street home in September 2016.
Khaladkar accepted evidence presented at trial suggesting Earle had been suicidal and had gone to the Waterford hospital earlier in the day, but had been turned away before he barricaded himself inside his mother’s home with a sawed-off shotgun.
In a call to 911, Earle made a report of an armed and dangerous man who was going to hurt people. Prosecutor Erin Matthews played that phone call for the court, and Jason was heard threatening to shoot police and himself.
"This is what's going to happen, OK?" he says at one point. "They're going to come in, I'm going to shoot them, they're going to shoot back, I'm going to die.
"I'm not going to jail. I'm going in the ground."
Police officers who took the stand said they had heard the sound of three shots fired from the home, and found spent casings, broken glass, and what appeared to be bullet holes inside the house after Earle’s arrest.
Earle was apprehended after his father, who was also inside the home at the time, disarmed him and threw the gun out the front door, then brought him outside and wrestled him to the ground. Fighting against the arresting officers, Earle struck one of them in the face.
Khaladkar accepted evidence from Earle’s father that the gun had been discharged three times: once into the telephone, once near the patio door when Earle lost his balance, and once out a front window as his father tried to disarm him.
Earle’s lawyer, Jennifer Curran, did not call any evidence once Matthews had presented her case, saying Earle was not contesting the weapons and assaulting a police officer charges. She said Earle had never intended to fire the gun at police and had been looking to hurt himself only.
Earle will be back in court next week for a sentencing hearing.
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