On the night of March 13, during a heated argument with Grant Tapper, his girlfriend said, she sensed he would get violent and tried to make him leave.
“I saw the switch was on,” the woman said while testifying at Tapper’s trial in provincial court in St. John’s Thursday. “When he got mad, he stayed mad.”
That’s when Tapper choked her so hard, she saw stars, she said.
“Lots of stars,” she said.
It was part of what she described as Tapper’s vicious attack that happened at the couple’s basement apartment on Branscombe Street.
She said he also pushed her several times, injuring her head; hit her with a large, oak coffee table, breaking one of its legs and one of her ribs; and picked her up and slammed her on the floor, “just like you see in wrestling,” she said.
“He probably would’ve finished the job, I’m sure.” — alleged assault victim speaking in court
As the woman spoke, Tapper, who has been in custody since that night, shook his head.
The woman went on to say that had it not been for her ex-husband — who is a good friend and was temporarily staying with the couple in the apartment and managed to get her to leave — she likely would not have survived.
“He probably would’ve finished the job, I’m sure,” the woman said, explaining the argument began earlier that evening when Tapper left her alone in a bar to talk to another woman. “But (my ex-husband) saved me. … He’s rescued me about 30 times from Grant in the past (few) years.”
When her ex-husband testified, he added that he also saw Tapper slap her and kick her.
Tapper, 33, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats to kill the woman’s pets and breaching court orders.
The pets were five 11-day-old Rottweiler puppies, which Tapper said he would kill if she didn’t give him one, according to the woman.
In his tirade, she testified, Tapper went in to the spare room, where the dogs were with their mother and father, grabbed one of the puppies by the neck, held it to her face and made the twisting motion on the puppy’s body, indicating how he would kill it.
As her ex-husband was getting her out of the apartment, she said, she heard Tapper running the bathtub and panicked that he would drown her puppies. She said she ran across the street to a neighbour’s house to call police.
RNC Const. Daniel Morrissey testified that when he arrived, about 10 minutes after the call, the woman was visibly distraught.
He said that when he and another officer walked toward the apartment, Tapper opened the apartment window and spoke to them. He said the woman was a “crackhead” and that they argued because she had gotten jealous.
He said Tapper then said, “How long will I spend in jail for drowning puppies?”
Morrissey said Tapper then said he was going to drown them and disappeared from the window. Seconds later, as the officers got to the door, Tapper was coming out. Before he was taken into custody, he told officers, “Do you actually think I would kill puppies?”
Morrissey said he turned off the running water in the bathtub and noticed the coffee table, with one leg missing, lying on its side in the kitchen area.
He said Tapper appeared to have been drinking, while the woman’s speech, “was somewhat slurred.”
The woman admitted she had taken Percocets that day, but said it was prescribed for her arthritis and that her demeanour doesn’t change after taking them.
The woman was also charged with assault and breaching court orders. She was released from custody pending a court appearance.
She is back on the stand June 8, when Tapper’s trial continues.
Tapper was acquitted in November of six violent crimes against the same woman. He had originally been facing 10 charges — sexually assaulting the woman, trying to choke her and assaulting her with a hammer and a butter knife, among other allegations — but most of them were dropped after the woman recanted information she had given to police.
Tapper was found guilty on four charges, and sentenced to time served and ordered him to undergo counselling for domestic violence and alcohol abuse.
Tapper’s criminal record dates back to 2006, and includes convictions for aggravated assault, assault, assault with a weapon, mischief, dangerous driving and sexual assault of a minor.
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