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December 30,
2000
Husband acquitted of trying to kill wife
Leading seaman found guilty of careless use of a firearm
insteadBy Amy Pugsley
Fraser / Staff Reporter
A man depressed over his wife's
extramarital affair was acquitted Friday of trying to kill her with a
12-gauge shotgun.
Luc Jean Thivierge, 28, of Swordfish Drive, 12
Wing Shearwater, was charged March 12, 1999, with the attempted murder of
his wife, Nancy.
After a four-day trial that wrapped up last week
in Dartmouth provincial court, Judge Flora Buchan found him guilty Friday
of the lesser and included offence of careless use of a firearm.
After the verdict and submissions from lawyers, the judge gave Mr.
Thivierge a conditional discharge, which will come into effect after he
serves a year's probation with conditions.
Those conditions
include having no contact with his wife except to arrange visits with
their son, abstaining from alcohol or drugs, refraining from possessing
firearms, ammunition or explosives except in the line of duty and staying
under the authority of the Canadian Forces.
Crown attorney Dennis
Theman had asked the judge for a suspended sentence, while defence lawyer
David Bright had requested the conditional discharge.
Court heard
during the trial that Mr. Thivierge is a leading seaman with the navy who
routinely handled weapons in the course of his job as a member of a
boarding party for fishery patrol.
On the night in question, after
the couple had been drinking with friends, the young man confronted his
wife over an affair with his best friend.
While Mr. Bright
admitted at trial that his client was depressed about his wife leaving
him, he said there was no evidence before the court of a specific
intention to kill her, and Judge Buchan agreed.
Mr. Bright said
the 12-gauge pump-action shotgun held three shells and only one was fired
- therefore Mr. Thivierge had ample opportunity to fire two more shots.
During the trial, the Crown said the shotgun discharged into the
ceiling of the foyer when Ms. Thivierge tried to leave the house.
The couple's one-year-old son was asleep in the front bedroom
directly above the foyer at the time, but the bullet didn't enter his
room.
Crown attorney Dennis Theman said there was no doubt the
couple had problems in their marriage and that Mr. Thivierge had been
drinking earlier in the afternoon.
"Who wouldn't be angry to find
out his wife was having an affair with his best friend?" Mr. Theman said
during the trial.
After the criminal charge was laid, Mr.
Thivierge was denied a promotion, taken off ship duty and moved to shore.
His wife moved out and is living with Mr. Thivierge's former best
friend.
Despite the role that alcohol played in the situation, Mr.
Thivierge has no alcohol-based dysfunction, according to a favourable
psychological assessment report from the military that was used in
sentencing.
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