There were tears on both sides of the courtroom as the jury in Mark Rumboldt’s trial presented their verdicts Saturday.
On the charge of attempted murder, the 11 jurors found Rumboldt not guilty, causing an audible sigh of relief among his supporters.
On the charge of administering a noxious substance to his now-ex-wife, the jury found Rumboldt guilty.
“Good,” a member of the woman’s family was heard saying.
Rumboldt, who was released on bail the day after he was charged in November 2017, was then taken back into custody to await a sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon.
At the request of prosecutor Scott Hurley and despite arguments by defence lawyer Jeff Brace, Justice David Hurley ruled it was in the public interest for Rumboldt to go to jail after his conviction on such a serious charge.
Neither Scott Hurley nor Brace would comment on the verdict once court was adjourned.
Rumboldt, 58, was accused of attempting to murder his wife by putting Ativan and sleeping pills in her wine during a romantic evening at home.
The complainant told the court she and Rumboldt had been having trouble in their 25-year marriage and had been seeing a counsellor for about three months as of Jan. 22, 2016. That night, the couple had decided to have a quiet night at home with homemade pizza and some drinks, she said. The woman told the court Rumboldt had poured her two glasses of wine and ran her a bath. While she was in the tub, she said, he came into the bathroom and collapsed on the floor.
The woman said she remembered jumping up and telling him that she was going to call 911, but had no other memory until two days later, when police told her of the allegation against her husband.
Paramedics and police officers arrived after the woman's 911 call, in which she said her husband had taken Ativan and was drinking, and found the couple intoxicated, but saw no sign of anything that would explain their extreme level of impairment. They were both taken to hospital.
Rumboldt had been discharged before his wife and took a seat by her bedside. At one point a nurse went to check on the woman and found Rumboldt holding a facecloth to her mouth. When the cloth was moved, the nurse noted a white residue and what appeared to be pieces of pills in the woman's mouth. She called for the doctor and two other nurses, and a sweep of the woman's mouth revealed a fluid later found to contain Ativan, a sleeping pill and codeine. A pill bottle belonging to Rumboldt was found on her bed, and a bag containing more medications prescribed to him was found underneath her blanket.
The woman was also found to have high levels of Ativan and the sleeping pill in her blood, but no trace of codeine.
Medical staff called the RNC, and officers arrived to take statements before taking Rumboldt home. Three hours later they returned to the home and asked him to leave so they could secure it while waiting to get a warrant to search the inside.
Investigators weren't granted the warrant, however, with a provincial court judge ruling the scene was contaminated because Rumboldt had been there alone for three hours. As a result, the glasses of wine were not forensically tested.
Rumboldt’s trial at Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court lasted two weeks. During his closing submissions, Brace suggested the woman had been the one to poison Rumboldt with the medication before taking some herself in an attempt to take her own life. Brace suggested she had taken the pills herself in hospital.
juanita.mercer@thetelegram.com
Twitter: @juanitamercer
tara_bradbury
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
