The 44-year-old man who savagely assaulted a nursing assistant during an evening at the Festival western de St-Tite almost three years ago was found guilty of assault causing bodily harm and threats yesterday.
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“Wacky” claims and “inconsistent” statements; this is how the judge qualified Patrice St-Amand’s version of the facts before finding him guilty of the majority of the charges against him in the morning at the La Tuque courthouse.
Aggressive
The fateful evening dates back to September 15, 2019, when the forties was on a terrace with his wife as part of the festival which attracts an average of 600,000 people annually.
Security officers had to intervene with him at some point because he showed signs of aggression towards festival-goers.
St-Amand then got into a fighting stance, took off his sweater and let it be known that he would not leave the scene. As he refused to comply, it took five officers and some physical force to control him on the ground while waiting for the police. He then pretended to lose consciousness.
When he arrived at the emergency room at the Shawinigan hospital, the staff still believed him to be unconscious since he had no tone and his arms were hanging on either side of the stretcher.
Nose fracture
But when a nursing assistant tried to cut his sweater in order to examine it, he suddenly “woke up”, stood up abruptly and punched the woman hard.
“You will not cut my vest, my tabernacle”, he then launched to him, before uttering death threats.
The medical professional suffered serious injuries; fracture of the nose “from the forehead to the teeth”, head trauma, hearing impairment and whiplash.
Patrice St-Amand will remain detained and must return before the judge on September 2 for observations on the sentence. A psychological report was requested by the defense, which raised possible mental health issues.
At the same time, the accused must also undergo another trial in the fall for an attempted murder of the co-owner of the Central hotel in Parent, in Haute-Mauricie, which occurred in January 2020.
