Jury acquits man of murder after stabbing drug dealer to death

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This article was published 03/11/2017 (2953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 24-year-old Winnipeg man who escaped out the window of a Point Douglas rooming house after fatally stabbing a 25-year-old man more than three years ago has been acquitted of murder.

Michael Tyler John Boubard was defending himself from an attack by a drug dealer when he stabbed Jeffery Campbell inside a suite at 248 Austin St. N. on Aug. 25, 2014, a jury decided Thursday night.

After hearing all of the evidence during Boubard’s second-degree murder trial, which began in mid-October and included three days of testimony from the accused, the jury took about three hours to deliberate before declaring Boubard not guilty.

Represented by criminal defence lawyer Martin Glazer, Boubard and his team maintained he was only defending himself and had managed to disarm Campbell after he lunged at him with a knife.

“I told the jury, and I think it resonated with them, that there are violent parts of the city of Winnipeg… This was a crack house; my client found himself in a predicament where the drug dealer came at him with a knife and he had no choice but to react and defend himself. And I think the jury accepted that and they obviously believed him,” Glazer said.

“It’s a clear and classic case of self-defence.”

The defence’s argument was Campbell was selling crack cocaine to Boubard when they got into an argument and Campbell pulled out a knife from behind his back. A struggle ensued and Boubard picked up the knife after Campbell lost his grip on it during the fight.

Boubard then stabbed Campbell as Campbell held him by the neck, trying to get the knife back from him, Glazer argued, saying Boubard was confronted by a woman with another knife after the stabbing, before he went out the window to escape.

During his testimony to the jury, Boubard broke down on the stand.

“He was reliving what happened,” Glazer said. “I told the jury, he’s a survivor of an attack. Had he not defended himself, he would be dead.”

Boubard remains in custody on another matter still before the court.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay