ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Listening intently to the judge as his mom sat behind him taking notes, Tim Blake learned his fate when it came to his dozen criminal charges Thursday.
He had asked Judge Mike Madden to release him from custody with a sentence of time served for the offences, which included fleeing from police, breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home, assaulting her and threatening to cut off her legs.
The request was far from the Crown's suggested 29-month prison sentence, and one that Blake's lawyer, Tim O'Brien, seemed to know wasn't likely when he argued for it last month.
"Mr. Blake has instructed me to request a sentence of time served, and I'm going to try and justify it as best as I can," O'Brien told the judge at Blake's sentencing hearing.
Madden rejected the request, sentencing Blake to a little more than two years in jail. With enhanced credit for the time Blake has spent behind bars awaiting trial, he has 413 days left to serve.
Madden also gave Blake a two-year period of probation once he's released, with orders including that he have no contact with his ex and participate in counselling as deemed appropriate by his probation officer, particularly related to drug and alcohol addiction, anger management and domestic violence. Madden banned Blake from having firearms, and ordered him to submit a DNA sample to a police database.
Blake, 28, had pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, fleeing from police officers and breaching court orders, but entered not guilty pleas to violent crimes against his ex-girlfriend. Madden convicted Blake after a trial.
The woman testified that she and Blake had been dating for a few months when they began arguing at her home on March 8. She said Blake followed her around the home and threw a container of yogurt at her, causing her to slip as she tried to get away. He pushed her back to the floor when she managed to get up, knocking the wind out of her, and subsequently assaulted her in the living room.
The woman tried to leave the house, but Blake closed the front door each time she opened it, telling her that she wasn't going and threatening to cut off her legs. When he left to answer his ringing phone, the woman ran outside and down the street, approaching a neighbour and asking her to call police.
The woman later moved to a different neighbourhood, and heard Blake knocking on her front door on the morning of May 4 and calling out angrily for her to let him in. When she refused, he tried to open the door, then told her that he would call people to come and "finish her off."
The woman testified that she called her cousin, who called police. She then walked into her kitchen and found Blake standing there.
"He grabbed me by my hand and tried to bend my fingers backward. He also grabbed me by the mouth and pressed hard with his two fingers,” she testified.
Blake testified he did not assault the woman and did not force his way into her house, and pointed out that in the case of the second incident, his name was on the lease of the woman’s home and she had welcomed him in hours earlier.
Blake was under an order to have no contact with the woman at the time.
In delivering his guilty verdicts, Madden said he had found Blake's version of events unbelievable and, at times, nonsensical. Blake's name may have been on the lease, Madden said, but he wasn’t living there and had been banned from being there.
Blake has a three-day trial scheduled in March for six unrelated offences alleged to have been committed in February and April, including damaging a man’s property to a value of less than $5,000, theft from Circle K and possession of stolen goods.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
tara.bradbury@thetelegram.com
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