Life-altering hammer attack not attempt to kill, court told

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This article was published 12/04/2022 (1273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JONATHAN Flett admits beating a Good Samaritan on the head with a hammer but had no intention of killing him, a judge was told Monday.

Flett, 20, is on trial charged with attempted murder for a Sept. 1, 2020, attack that sent 27-year-old Zachary Fitzsimmons to hospital with life-altering injuries.

Flett lashed out at Fitzsimmons, mistakenly believing he had hit Flett first, and in his own words “wasn’t trying to kill that guy,” defence lawyer Scott Newman told Queen’s Bench Justice Theodor Bock in a closing argument.

Flett has admitted he is guilty of the lesser charge of aggravated assault.

“If you accept what he has to say, he is entitled to an acquittal (on the attempted murder charge),” Newman said.

Fitzsimmons testified earlier in the trial he had been “hanging out” and drinking with his fiancée and friends when they drove to the Maryland Hotel to pick up more beer before going home.

Fitzsimmons said he was approaching the beer vendor entrance when he saw “a group of guys messing around with this younger kid… They were circled round him. I could sense something was going to happen. They were bullying him.”

Several bystanders were walking in the area but did nothing to assist the boy, he said.

“I came up (to the group) and said: ‘Leave that kid alone,’” he said. “They didn’t like that. They got up in my face and said: ‘What are you going to do?’ I felt like I was going to be the one they were fighting, that’s how close they were to my face.”

Fitzsimmons said he may have thrown the first punch in self-defence and found himself fighting two of the men, while a third struck him on the head several times with a retractable baton.

“Everything flashed white” and the next thing he remembered was waking up in hospital with his fiancée, feeling “very confused,” Fitzsimmons said.

Fitzsimmons did not testify to being hit with a hammer, but security video of the attack shows Flett striking Fitzsimmons nine times with a drywall hammer, at one point lodging the tool in his skull.

Fitzsimmons suffered a broken jaw, a shattered nose and injuries to his skull, and spent three weeks in hospital.

Newman said Flett lives with mental disabilities and challenges, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and an inability to concentrate or process information quickly that rob him of the ability to form the intent to commit murder.

“He meets the province’s formal definition of a vulnerable person living with a mental disability,” the defence lawyer said.

The trial heard testimony from two psychologists who examined Flett; one, months before the attack, and the other, after his arrest.

The doctor who completed the earlier report outlined “a history of serious offending behaviour” and “behavioural disregulation” borne from an upbringing of instability, neglect and abuse, Newman said.

“This incident was foreseeable in the sense that Mr. Flett was not being provided appropriate supports by the province of Manitoba and Child and Family Services,” Newman said. “The tragedy here is that the doctor tried to get him the supports that would have prevented this from happening.”

Crown attorney Jennifer Comack said Flett provided differing versions of events to doctors, police and the court.

Flett insisted he had no intent to kill Fitzsimmons while at the same time telling court he had no memory of attacking him — conflicting claims Comack described as an “utter absurdity.”

“His evidence was all over the place, inconsistent and defied common sense,” the Crown said. “Nothing Jonathan Flett said about the day in question can be believed.”

Bock has reserved his verdict.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca