Judge Kymil Howe told a Pinchgut Lake man that he was really lucky there were no serious repercussions because of his behaviour when he followed and then assaulted a man this past July.
Howe sentenced Terrance Blanchard, 54, to four-months house arrest in provincial court in Corner Brook on Tuesday on two charges — assault and causing a disturbance — in relation to the incident.
The conditional sentence was one that had been suggested by Crown attorney Trina Simms and supported by Blanchard.
The sentence comes the completion of another four-month conditional sentence for other offences, including assaulting a police officer at an accident scene, that occurred around the same time.
Howe said she hoped that the sentence he had already been subjected to has met some of the objectives of the sentencing process and that it’s had a deterrent effect on him so that he’ll now be more questioning of anything prescribed for him and that he’ll be more conscious of his own behavior
“I wonder if you can imagine how someone else might have felt when they were just driving along the highway and suddenly felt that they were being pursued by a mad man. Because that’s probably the impression they would have had,” she said to him before rendering her decision.
The incident that brought him before the court on Tuesday occurred on July 17, 2017.
At just after 4 p.m. the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called to a report of a disturbance between two unknown men at the Fairway Honda dealership in the city.
The victim told police that Blanchard had followed him to the dealership and assaulted him.
He recounted a bizarre story of Blanchard coming up behind the vehicle he was test driving with the flashers on his truck, passing him, later stopping in the middle of the north shore highway, being parked on a dead-end street off Riverside Drive, pulling out and passing him again and stopping his truck.
Blanchard then got out of his truck and approached the vehicle the man was in, beating on the window and the hood of the car. His fingerprints were found on the vehicle.
The man swerved to get away and headed back to Fairway Honda via the Trans-Canada Highway.
Blanchard followed the man to dealership where he pulled and tore his shirt and punched and kicked him. A female passenger in Blanchard’s truck pulled him away from the man and he got back in his truck and drove down Confederation Drive.
The charges were not sworn before the court until December.
In speaking to Blanchard’s record, Simms said this type of behaviour is not unfamiliar to him. Besides the other 2017 charges, for which he’s served time, he has convictions for resisting arrest in 2016, and ones related to impaired driving and uttering threats in 2011.
From the facts, she said, it appears to be an unprovoked incident in relation to the victim’s involvement.
She said Blanchard’s behaviour was extremely aggressive.
“It shows an inability to address whatever anger had been instigated there.”
Blanchard’s lawyer, Bob Matthews, said his client was on medication at the time that had an adverse effect on him.
Blanchard apologized to the court, his family and anyone else he hurt by his actions.
At the completion of his sentence he’ll be placed on probation for two years. He must also pay $200 in victim surcharge fines to the court.
