Trial of man who evaded the RCMP during siege hears of alleged attack on sister

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The Newfoundland man who slipped away during a week-long standoff with the RCMP is accused of holding a shotgun to his sister's neck after threatening to "waste her away," his jury trial heard Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Ivany described the alleged incident as she outlined her case in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Leo Crockwell, 57, has pleaded not guilty to eight charges including assault, several firearms offences and making threats. He has been in custody since the eight-day siege ended Dec. 11, 2010, with his arrest by another police force several kilometres away.

Ivany told the eight women and four men on the jury that witnesses will describe how Catherine Crockwell, sister of the accused, fled to a neighbour's house with their mother, Margaret, on Dec. 4, 2010.

All three lived in the home in Bay Bulls when the alleged gun attack happened after Margaret Crockwell found her son sitting in the kitchen with a wet towel on his head, Ivany said.

He had been acting strangely in recent days, including firing a shotgun blast into a wall of the house, Ivany told the court.

When his mother and sister came into the kitchen, Leo Crockwell asked about a man that he thought had been upstairs.

"You mean the invisible man," Ivany quoted Catherine Crockwell as saying. She went to leave the house when she saw how her brother was looking at her, but he allegedly pushed her down and put the barrel of a gun to her neck, Ivany said.

She said the jury will hear how Leo Crockwell also allegedly kicked his sister before she and their mother got to the house of a neighbour who called police.

Ivany also said witnesses will say Crockwell came out of the house with a gun, accusing his mother and sister of lying.

Ivany said the RCMP cordoned off local streets and businesses because they feared for the safety of Leo Crockwell and the public.

Throughout the standoff, police wanted a peaceful resolution, she added.

"No one wanted tragedy to be the end result of the matter," she told court.

Over the next week, the Mounties tried several methods to oust Crockwell from the home, including negotiation, tear gas and the use of a police robot that at one point delivered a letter and cigarettes, Ivany said.

She described several shotgun blasts from the home, including one that shattered glass over the head of an RCMP officer as he was hitting the door of the home with a battering ram.

Ivany said Mounties began flooding the house with water on Dec. 10. The next day, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary got a tip from a woman who had given Leo Crockwell a drive to a home several kilometres away, she said.

Leo Crockwell told RNC officers that he left the house after he smelled fuel when water started rushing in, and that he had only been trying to shoot wires off the police robot, Ivany said.

"It will be clear that Mr. Crockwell had no intention of leaving the home or listening to the police," prior to his escape, she told the jury.

Crockwell sat passively in leg irons and showed no reaction as he listened to the case against him.

The trial is expected to take about four weeks and began Thursday after a slight delay.

Justice Richard LeBlanc first dealt with requests from five of 12 jurors for an exemption from duty. He released two men for reasons that LeBlanc placed under a publication ban for privacy. Two alternate jurors took their place.

The trial has been postponed repeatedly since Crockwell parted ways with his legal team and then failed to hire another lawyer before Ken Mahoney took on the job.

Documents released under Access to Information laws showed the Mounties spent more than $444,000 on the botched siege before Crockwell fled undetected from a side window.

A long list of witnesses that's expected to include several police officers will be heard from starting Friday.