Punch leaves permanent mark

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This article was published 04/05/2023 (1245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A youth who was punched in the face two years ago during an alleged fight with an older peer will live with a metal plate in his mouth for the rest of his life as a result, a Brandon courtroom heard this week.

After the youth, who was 17 at the time, was taken to hospital that February night, he learned his jaw was fractured in two places and would have to be sewn shut for two months. He would have to travel to Winnipeg for surgery and a metal plate would be permanently placed in his jaw.

Those details were revealed Tuesday by the youth — who the Sun is choosing not to name as he was underage at the time of the incident — during his testimony against Ayden Scramstad, who is on trial after pleading not guilty to a charge of aggravated assault.

The charge stems from an alleged fight between Scramstad, who was 20 at the time, and the victim in an apartment stairwell along 10th Street in Brandon on Feb. 28, 2021.

The jury trial, which is scheduled for nine days, began Monday with the Crown’s first witness, a now 20-year-old man who took the injured boy to hospital after the altercation.

The man testified the victim was like a “little brother” to him. That night, between 11:40 p.m. and midnight, he received a call from the victim who said he was on his way to the house.

When the victim arrived, his friend tried to stop some of the profuse bleeding but ended up taking the victim to Brandon Regional Health Centre.

On Tuesday, the Crown’s second witness, the victim himself, who is now 19, testified that he had been invited to the apartment by a girl who he had been talking to over Snapchat, a photo-sharing and messaging app.

The victim said that when he arrived at the building and tried to enter the apartment, Scramstad came out, grabbed him by the collar, yelled in his face and punched him in the stomach once or twice.

The victim said he apologized to Scramstad and pleaded with him to let him go, but Scramstad threw a jaw-fracturing punch to the left side of his face and told the victim to “get the f—k out of here.” With his ears ringing from the impact of the punch, the victim ran to his car and drove to his friend’s house.

In his statement to police after the fight, the victim stated that Scramstad asked him why he had shown up to his girlfriend’s place, but during his testimony in court, the victim said he couldn’t remember the conversation between him and Scramstad before the fight.

When answering questions from the Crown, the victim said he did not want to fight with Scramstad and he did not punch his accused attacker back.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert’s cross-examination of the victim explored the relationships between the victim and Scramstad and the relationship between the victim and the girl.

The victim testified that he had no prior relationship with the girl, who was a year ahead of him at the same high school. He said he was bored that night and she invited him over. The victim said he knew Scramstad through Scramstad’s house parties and the two had mutual friends.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, testimony revealed that the victim and Scramstad had a prior argument over allegations the victim had been seeing a girl who was cheating on Scramstad’s friend.

Richert asked the victim if he had been to the girl’s apartment before, indicating that screenshots from his phone’s GPS data showed he was in the same area of the girl’s apartment earlier that year, before the fight.

The victim denied that he had been to the apartment before. He also denied knowing that Scramstad and the girl were dating. He told the court he deleted the Snapchat messages and removed the girl from the app while he was in hospital.

During cross-examination, Richert suggested the victim had been lurking around the girl’s house uninvited, which the victim denied.

On Wednesday, the Crown and the defence also entered an agreed statement of facts based on a statement made by Scramstad’s friend that was read to the jury.

According to the statement, which was read by prosecutors, Scramstad’s friend was at the Comfort Inn that Saturday night, having consumed multiple beers and mixed drinks. Scramstad called his friend multiple times, but he didn’t answer his phone.

Finally, on the third call, at 12:45 a.m., his friend picked up the phone and Scramstad told him that he had been in a fight and said he didn’t know what was going to happen. According to the witness’s statement, Scramstad told him over the phone he had hit someone twice in the altercation.

Winnipeg attorney Trinda De Monye wrapped up the prosecution’s case against Scramstad on Wednesday afternoon with her final witness, Brandon police Const. Jeremy Foidart.

Foidart testified about taking a written statement from the victim while he was in hospital and his interviews with Scramstad, Scramstad’s friend and the girl.

Foidart told the court he couldn’t retrieve any Snapchat messages that may have been exchanged between the victim and the girl, and the social-media company informed him that it does not keep records of messages unless a user saves them.

The defence opted not to call evidence and the accused didn’t take the stand, which is his legal prerogative.

Closing arguments from prosecutors and defence will be heard Friday morning. The jury will enter into deliberations that afternoon.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @geena_mortfield