Coffee pot assault earns man jail time

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on September 15, 2022.

RCMP work at the scene of a stand off earlier this year in Raymond after a man attacked a passer-by. Herald file photo by Delon Shurtz

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

Using a coffee pot as a weapon has earned a 32-year-old man a four-month stint behind bars.

Andrew Michael Marshall was sentenced Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court after pleading guilty to charges of assault with a weapon, mischief causing damage and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

On the afternoon of March 26 of this year a pedestrian was walking past a residence at 67 South 100 Street West in Raymond, when Marshall came out of the house, approached the man and struck him in the head with a coffee pot. The victim called RCMP, who surrounded the residence in which Marshall had barricaded himself and began to damage walls and smash windows.

The incident resulted in a lengthy standoff with police, and a negotiator was called to convince Marshall, who said he had knives, to eventually surrender.

“During the course of that standoff he had made threats with respect to using the knives,” said Crown Prosecutor Dawn Janecke, who noted Marshall threatened to use the knives on himself and placed others at risk given the residential location of the standoff.

Janecke also pointed out Marshall has a criminal record that goes back to 2010 and includes convictions for assault and uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm. Most recently, on Sept. 7, he pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

“This was both a mental health crisis and a substance abuse crisis, and a combination of both at the same time,” explained Lethbridge lawyer Vincent Guinan.

“Mr. Marshall went through a really horrible period of time where he had some substance abuse problems and he was at a kind of a crossroads where substance abuse problems and some mental health concerns generated a number of police reports in a very short period of time.”

Guinan said Marshall, who is a welder, has slowly dealt with most of the charges he has accrued, and is taking advantage of programs at the jail to improve his employment opportunities.

“In fact, today he was brought down from a class he was participating in involving the oil and gas industry and employment prospects in Alberta for individuals upon their eventual release.”

Marshall is also aware of the consequences of using drugs, particularly given his health issues, Guinan added.

“I think he’s got an increasing awareness of how the substance abuse issues and his own mental health issues, when they intersect, create situations like this where he is suicidal, swinging around coffee pots, trashing houses…and he doesn’t want to be in that position again, he doesn’t want to do that again.”

In addition to his jail sentence, which he will serve concurrently with the other sentence he is serving, Marshall will be on probation for 12 months after he is released. He is not to have any contact with the man he struck with the coffee pot, and he is not to possess any weapons. He must also submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Data Bank.

Marshall still faces two charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm in relation to a domestic incident. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and the matter was adjourned to set a date for a three-hour trial.

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