Brodie Joseph McQuaid and Matthew Lindsey Clarke were in P.E.I. Supreme Court Wednesday morning to hear Justice Nancy Key’s decision after a trial that was spread out over several months.
Matthew Brian Misener shot both men and was sentenced in February to one year in jail for assault with a weapon, careless storage of a firearm and possessing a firearm without a licence.
In her decision, Key said Misener challenged the two men to come to his house that day, and they didn’t break in.
“Matthew Misener got out of hand,” she said.
RELATED: Christmas Day shooting of two men gets P.E.I. jail term for Misener
During the trial, the court heard McQuaid and Clarke went to the home on Christmas Day in 2015 to confront one of Misener’s friends who was sleeping with the girlfriend of someone they knew.
Misener was home with his friend.
In Misener’s version of events, he said his rifle went off while McQuaid was strangling him and the two were struggling.
McQuaid was shot in the hand, abdomen and neck.
Misener shot Clarke in the upper leg and hit him in the face with the butt of a rifle.
In McQuaid’s version of events, he said he saw Misener with the gun and was trying to get it away from him when Misener shot him.
Key said she didn’t accept Misener’s testimony that McQuaid was trying to strangle him.
As she read her decision, Key discussed several other parts of Misener’s testimony that she didn’t accept, including his evidence that Clarke was assaulting Misener’s friend.
Key said she accepted that there may have been pushing and shoving, but Clarke and the friend were effectively holding each other.
The defence argued Misener invited McQuaid and Clarke to his house to settle the matter involving his friend like men.
Key didn’t accept Misener’s evidence that he didn’t invite the two men and she said he was “spoiling for a fight.”
She also said she didn’t believe Misener’s testimony that he got a second gun, leaned out a window and tried to warn the accused off.
Key found the two men were invited to Misener’s house and she also found them not guilty of being unlawfully in a dwelling.
