Judge reserves decision in Ninth Street stabbing trial

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This article was published 04/03/2022 (1524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has reserved her decision in the trial of a woman who is accused of stabbing another woman in the neck during a fight on Ninth Street last summer.

Thursday marked the first day of trial for Harmony Linklater in Brandon provincial court, who is accused in the stabbing. She is presumed innocent until proven guilty and the charges have not been proven in court.

Const. Curtis Calcut told the court he was at a downtown convenience store on June 22, 2021, in civilian clothes during an operation to reduce criminal activity. After buying a drink, he went back to his unmarked vehicle and saw Linklater walking on Ninth Street. She was walking toward a group of people, including the alleged victim, outside the convenience store.

“They began yelling at each other, dropped their bags … and began swinging and punching at each other, it looked like a consensual fight,” he said under questioning from Crown attorney Grant Hughes.

The officers put on their protective equipment in an effort to get ready to intervene, but the alleged fight stopped before they could get out of their vehicle, Calcut said.

“We saw [the alleged victim] on top of Linklater and I watched Linklater deliver these hammer-type fists to her,” he said, adding it only lasted a few seconds.

“[She] got off Harmony Linklater and started walking up the sidewalk and as she’s walking up the sidewalk, she’s bleeding … it was all over, just filling up her clothing.”

Calcut told the court he then arrested Linklater with his gun drawn and she dropped the knife she was reportedly holding.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Kaitlynn Porath, Calcut said he saw the alleged fight between Linklater and the victim, but didn’t see the knife actually used.

She also raised issue with Linklater saying she was in physical pain while being interviewed by police and with her intoxication

Const. Jordan Barbeau described the fight between the two women like a “hockey knife” and punches were going back and forth.

After the fight ended, he said the other woman had collapsed at the door of the convenience store and a man was holding both sides of her neck. He then started performing first-aid by holding a bag against the wound to apply pressure.

“The female was saying, ‘I’m scared, I think I’m going to die,’ and I was just trying to calm her down, saying, ‘You’re going to be fine, the ambulance is coming, you’re doing to be fine, it’s going to be OK.’”

Porath raised the issue of the size difference between the two women during cross-examination. Barbeau estimated Linklater was smaller in stature than the other woman.

Const. Brett Seib, who testified third for the Crown, arrived a few minutes later and took over first-aid on the woman. Her arms were covered in blood and there was a large pool of blood forming under her, Seib told the court.

He put gauze and bandages on her neck in an effort to stop the bleeding, but the blood soaked through it, he said. He estimated the wound was approximately an inch in length.

Linklater, who sat in the courtroom wearing a yellow shirt and black sweater, testified in the afternoon. She told the court she spent the day before the incident drinking and alleged she was attacked unprovoked by the other woman over the course of the previous day.

Just before the incident, Linklater said the complainant took a bottle of vodka from her while they were drinking in an area she called “the dip,” near Pacific Avenue. She then started walking up Ninth Street, which was where the other woman had gone.

“I hear someone say, ‘She’s coming, she’s coming,’ and I look up and I see [the complainant] and she’s running toward me … and all of a sudden she jumps in the air and punches me in the face,” Linklater told the court.

Linklater said she dropped to one knee and fell backward, with the other woman on top of her. She testified she had a knife in her hand and used it to get the attacker off of her. At some point, she allegedly stabbed the other woman in the neck, but Linklater said she didn’t believe she was badly hurt.

Under cross-examination from Hughes, Linklater said she carried the knife in an easily accessible pocket on her backpack, but denied she carried it for protection. She said she didn’t use it often, only for fixing her glasses or opening bags of ice.

On Friday morning, Porath argued in her closing statement that Linklater did not walk up Ninth Street with the intention to hurt someone and the court should not infer nefarious purposes. She also argued the other woman had Linklater pinned during the fight.

On the other hand, Hughes argued the incident was not about self defence as using the knife was not proportional to the fight.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta reserved her decision in the case. A date for her decision is expected to be scheduled next week.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_