The judge said despite the defence’s submissions there was an intervening cause of the victim’s injuries, the evidence suggested otherwise
Calgarian Collin Dean Oxtoby and two female supporters were reduced to tears Thursday as a judge found him guilty of manslaughter in the death of his roommate.
Justice Michele Hollins found Oxtoby assaulted Kevin Honish in the early morning hours of July 8, 2022, before kicking the victim and his girlfriend out of his Albert Park home.
Honish later lapsed into a coma and died more than a week later on July 16.
But Hollins rejected suggestions by defence counsel Jim Lutz that the internal brain hemorrhage that led to the victim’s death could have been from a fall, or an intervening altercation, which could have occurred before he and girlfriend Juliana Ballantyne arrived at another residence about two hours after Oxtoby’s assault.
The Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge agreed with Crown prosecutor Gord Haight that there was nothing to support the defence theory something, or someone else, caused Honish’s fatal wound.
“The Crown urges me to find, based on the circumstantial evidence, that the victim suffered no significant injuries between the time he was attacked at the Albert Park house and the time he arrived at the (friend’s home),” Hollins said.
The judge noted after Honish was assaulted by Oxtoby and ordered to leave the home where he and Ballantyne rented a room, the victim and his girlfriend walked around for 45 to 60 minutes before eventually making their way to the home of Cheryl Bishkoff about two hours later.
Hollins said if Haight was right that the deceased suffered no injuries from the time he left Oxtoby’s residence until EMS was called to Bishkoff’s residence “it would mean that the accused had near exclusive opportunity to inflict the wounds that caused death.
“The accused is not required to put forward an alternative theory of how the victim died,” the judge said.
“Requiring him to negative the inference that the accused’s infliction of injuries was the cause of death would improperly reverse the burden of proof on that element of the offence.”
Hollins said despite Lutz’s submissions there was an intervening cause of Honish’s injuries, the evidence suggested otherwise.
“There is no evidence supporting an inference that the blunt force trauma that ultimately caused the victim’s death was suffered after he left the Albert Park house,” she said.
Hollins noted periodic videos that captured Honish and Ballantyne as they made their way to Bishkoff’s home showed the victim in the same state until EMS was called.
“The lack of evidence — namely, the fact that the victim is not onscreen for the entire time — cannot, by itself, support the inference that the victim’s injuries were self-inflicted or inflicted by another.”
As Hollins found Oxtoby guilty, two female supporters, including his girlfriend, began wailing in the courtroom, leading the offender to tears as well.
At Haight’s request Hollins ordered him into custody pending his sentencing in July.