Judge denies bail to Souris man facing gun charges

A Souris man who allegedly held a gun to a man’s head while threatening to “blow his brains out” was denied bail in Brandon provincial court on Tuesday.

Owen Yates, 42, is charged with several firearm offences, including pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm, along with assault with a weapon and two counts of uttering threats of bodily harm.

Yates appeared in court for a contested bail hearing last week. The Crown was opposed to Yates’ release on the basis that it would pose a risk to the public and could cause the public to lose confidence in the administration of justice. At the time, Judge Patrick Sullivan reserved his decision.

During the bail hearing, Crown attorney Reid Girard read the allegations related to the charges. None of the allegations has been proven in court.

On Oct. 7, a man went to the Souris hospital to get treatment for injuries to his face and eye. When RCMP officers came to the hospital, he gave an audio statement.

The man told police he was sitting in his truck when another man allegedly “smashed his car window out with a baseball bat,” Girard said. He said the victim then put his head down because of the shattered glass.

“When he was facing down towards the floor, he felt what he believed to be a barrel on the back of his head,” Girard said.

A woman who was sitting in the passenger seat and witnessed the alleged assault also provided a statement to police.

She said a man came to the window and said he wanted to have a conversation with the victim, and when the victim refused, he smashed the window, Girard said.

The woman alleged the man grabbed the victim by the sweater and held a “small, silver handgun to (his head) and threatened to ‘blow his brains out,’” he said. She claimed the man was upset about the victim having a relationship with his girlfriend, Girard said.

The man put his truck in reverse and drove away.

Officers patrolled the area looking for the suspect, and shortly after, RCMP received a call that he “was walking around Souris with his dog and looking to go after the victim,” Girard said.

Officers found Yates outside of his residence and arrested him. In his vehicle, officers saw a baseball bat in plain view, Girard said. Officers searched the vehicle and found a bag with black gloves with reinforced knuckles, a balaclava and zip ties, he said.

“This allegation involves an incredibly violent, dangerous assault on the victim, an assault involving an alleged firearm, which not only raises a strong concern for the safety of the victim but for the safety of the community as well,” Girard said.

Defence lawyer Myles Davis said Yates denied the allegations.

Davis said there are several triable issues, including that it was roughly 5 a.m. when the initial assault happened, making it difficult to see if the man was in fact Yates and that officers never recovered a firearm.

He said Yates will also be challenging the search of his vehicle on charter grounds and claimed the bag of items in the vehicle was his “sex bag,” denying it was for any “criminal purpose.”

Davis argued that because of these triable issues, Yates should not be kept in custody and proposed a bail plan that would have him live in Souris under a curfew and not have contact with the complainant or witness, along with a $500 cash deposit and $2,000 promise to pay.

Sullivan called the allegations serious and denied his bail on the grounds that denying his release is necessary to maintain the public’s confidence in the justice system.

“Particularly problematic … is the prospect of Mr. Yates being released with a plan to reside in the community of service, a very small community, and one in which where these alleged offences are said to have occurred, and the community of the complainant,” Sullivan said.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com