Lethbridge youth acquitted of attempted murder, found guilty of aggravated sexual assault
LETHBRIDGE – A 20-year-old Lethbridge man has been found not guilty of attempted murder but convicted on multiple other counts – including aggravated sexual assault – following hearings and a trial that stretched over several years.
The man cannot be identified, as he was 17-years-old when he committed the offence in 2015. Scheduling issues forced the trial to be heard in segments in December of 2016, September of 2017, and finally in February of 2018.
“When I consider the magnitude of the evidence that contradicts the accused’s evidence that he never left his residence and did not attend the residence of [the victim], I come to what I consider the inevitable conclusion that he is lying, and I reject his evidence,” stated Judge Gregory Maxwell, while delivering his decision Wednesday afternoon, Mar. 21.
Maxwell found that sometime between 4 and 5 a.m. on May 3, 2015, the man entered a south side apartment in Lethbridge that was owned by the 45-year-old victim’s step-father. He found her sleeping on the couch and proceeded to sexually assault her. When the woman’s step-father woke up and confronted him, the youth dragged her outside at knife point, continued the sexual assault, then cut her throat and fled the scene.