Latest news with #ChristianClyke
CBC
29-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Judge to rule on Justin Bourque's alleged prison stabbing in September
A judge will rule in September whether Justin Bourque and another man are guilty of stabbing a third man with shanks in a prison three years ago. Bourque and Christian Clyke stood trial over two days in Miramichi provincial court on two charges alleging they had shanks, or homemade weapons, and assaulted Chase Spence at the Atlantic Institution on May 3, 2022. Bourque is serving life sentences at the maximum security prison southwest of Miramichi for the 2014 murders of three RCMP officers in Moncton. Bourque's lawyer Simon Wood gave a closing argument Thursday afternoon saying the Crown had failed to prove the allegations against the 35-year-old. Bourque offered no defence evidence and opted not to testify. Clyke, who doesn't have a lawyer, took the stand to testify and argued he acted in self-defence when he stabbed Spence because Spence had sent a note the day before threatening violence, and attacked Bourque first. Crown prosecutor Jean-Guy Savoie argued self-defence wouldn't apply even if Spence started the fight, saying it became a two-on-one attack with Spence trying to run and continued after he fell to the floor. After hearing the testimony from six Crown witnesses and Clyke himself, Judge Johanne-Marguerite Landry said she would need more time to consider her verdict. Landry is scheduled to give her decision on Sept. 10. The trial began Wednesday and much of the two-day trial focused on surveillance video that captured most of the events. It showed Chase Spence entering the prison unit with Bourque and Clyke around 1:30 p.m. Spence walked down a hall with cell doors as Bourque followed him. There appeared to be words exchanged, though the video had no audio, and Spence appeared to punch at Bourque's neck followed by Bourque pulling out a shank. Clyke said he wanted to testify about what transpired, telling the judge he acted in self-defence. Clyke told the judge that the day before, a note known as a "kite" was passed through a prison door from another unit that he was told had been sent by Spence. Clyke testified the note said he was moving to the unit with Clyke and Bourque, and that he would "take a run at," or attack, the first person he encountered. Clyke testified he passed the note around the unit after receiving it. He said he watched Spence walk down the hall and then attack Bourque before turning and running toward Clyke and other inmates. "As me and him got closer, he sliced at my arm and ran, and that's when I chased him," Clyke testified. Clyke testified he was cut or stabbed four times. He testified he chased Spence to stop his "spree" in the unit, but that he was also trying to take a weapon from him. "I wasn't stabbing at him the whole time," Clyke said. Testimony, video conflict Under cross-examination by Savoie, Clyke's version of events shifted and he couldn't be certain who caused his injuries. Savoie repeatedly played the video, noting Clyke could not have seen the initial interaction between Spence and Bourque because Clyke was around a corner. The questioning also probed the existence of the kite note. Savoie asked who was aware of its contents and why it wasn't reported to prison officials. Clyke then said he was only told by the inmate who received the note through a door who sent it, but couldn't remember the name of the inmate who got the note. He said it wasn't reported because of unwritten prison rules against snitching. Clyke said he didn't keep the note, but had passed it along to other inmates. "We just have your word for it?" Savoie asked about the note. "Pretty much," Clyke said. Bourque's lawyer briefly cross-examined Clyke, asking if he saw Bourque stab Spence while on the floor. "No," Clyke said. The trial has heard that Spence was stabbed several times. Medical records were entered as evidence, which Savoie told the judge show Spence had various minor wounds and one stab wound that penetrated his chest wall. Spence didn't testify in the trial. An RCMP officer testified that neither Spence nor the two accused provided statements to police. While the events at the centre of the trial occurred in May 2022, the charges were only laid in November 2023. Bourque is serving life sentences for fatally shooting RCMP constables Dave Ross, Fabrice Gevaudan and Douglas Larche and wounding constables Darlene Goguen and Eric Dubois in Moncton on June 4, 2014. In 2016, he called police and confessed to the killing. He was sentenced in 2019.
CBC
28-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Man who killed 3 Moncton Mounties on trial for alleged prison assault
Social Sharing A trial for an alleged prison assault began Wednesday in New Brunswick for a man who killed three Mounties in Moncton in 2014. Justin Christen Bourque, 35, is being tried in Miramichi provincial court on two charges. It's alleged he committed aggravated assault by wounding Chase Spence and had a shank, a homemade weapon, on May 3, 2022, at the Atlantic Institution. Bourque is serving life sentences at the maximum-security prison in Renous, about 30 kilometres southwest of Miramichi. Bourque is being tried alongside Christian Enang Clyke of Halifax. Correctional officers at the prison testified about seeing Bourque and Clyke appear to stab Chase near a common room around 1:30 p.m. moments after Spence was moved into the unit with them. Keitha Keating, an acting security intelligence officer who works at the prison, testified about retrieving surveillance of the alleged assault. The video shows Spence walking into a hall holding bags of his belongings followed by Bourque. Spence appears to look in several cells before walking back toward Bourque. The two appear to exchange words. The video doesn't include any audio. It then shows Spence step back and then appear to punch at Bourque's neck. Bourque pulled his hands from his pockets, with Keating testifying he appeared to be holding a shank. Spence then reaches into his waistband. Keating said it was later determined he also had a weapon. Clyke and other inmates walked into the hall as the fight continued. Spence threw a bag at Bourque and ran past the other inmates. Keating said it appeared in the video that Clyke and Bourque had weapons. Spence ran to an area closer to a control station, where a correctional officer was posted, and fell to the floor as Clyke closed in on him. Bourque followed, though what transpired is largely out of frame in the video. Shortly after, Clyke and Bourque walk away, with blood falling from Clyke's arm. Another angle showed Clyke taking off his shirt to wrap a wound. The video shown to Judge Johanne-Marguerite Landry shows Bourque go to where Keating said there's a sink in the common room, and then returning to the hallway with the cell doors, where Keating said he appears to put something under a cell door. Spence got up and walked toward a door, also leaving a trail of blood. Michael Simon, a correctional officer in the control point near where the incident happened, testified he saw both Clyke and Bourque with shanks stabbing Spence while he was on the floor. Simon testified he used pepper spray to try to halt the fight, and when they continued, he grabbed a C8 rifle. He said he ordered them to stop and the fight ended. Other officers testified about removing Spence from the unit and seeing what appeared to be stab wounds on his neck or back. He was sent to hospital for treatment and survived. Spence's hospital records were entered as an exhibit, but the details of what the records say were not mentioned in court. Spence didn't testify in the trial. RCMP Const. Charles Bougie testified that none of the three inmates provided statements to police about the events during the investigation. Keating said all three had weapons that were seized. While she brought them to court, they were not entered as exhibits for the trial. Cross-examination of witnesses by Bourque's lawyer, Simon Wood, focused on who appeared to start the fight and whether Spence was checked for weapons before being moved into the unit. Keating testified Spence appeared to start the fight, and other witnesses testified that they believed others would be responsible for searching him for weapons. Clyke, who is self-represented, asked no cross-examination questions. Trial continues Thursday Six witnesses testified Wednesday, with the Crown saying it had finished calling witnesses just before 4 p.m. Wednesday. Wood said they will take the evening to decide if Bourque will testify in his own defence Thursday when the trial resumes. While the alleged assault was in May 2022, the charges against Clyke and Bourque were only laid in November 2023.
