Former Mount Royal University hockey captain Matthew Brown showed little sign of the gross intoxication his lawyer will argue led him to involuntarily break into two homes while in a state of non-insane automatism, court heard Wednesday.
Officers who showed up at a southwest residence where a break-in in progress had been reported found a naked Brown inside a main floor bathroom after he had spent up to an hour wandering around in frigid sub-zero temperatures.
Const. Jessica Juha, the lead investigator in the case, said Brown was calm and co-operative as officers took him under arrest inside a 77 St. S.W. residence, where police arrived to find the front entrance smashed in.
“At no point did we have to use force,” Juha told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Michele Hollins.
“Everything was very slow and deliberate,” she said of Brown surrendering himself to police.
Juha said because of the situation they were responding to, a violent break-in at another residence and reports from Brown’s friends that he had wandered off naked in -15 C weather, the arrest team was cautious.
“We were tactically ready for all alternatives,” she told Brown’s trial of the Jan. 13, 2018, incident that led to charges of break-and-enter and aggravated assault.
“I had my Taser … out at the ready.”
Brown is accused of breaking into the home of MRU professor Janet Hamnett, who did not know him, and viciously assaulting her before fleeing naked to a second home after he and some friends drank alcohol and consumed magic mushrooms.
Defence lawyer Sean Fagan will argue Brown’s self-induced intoxication left him in a state of non-insane automatism, unable to control his actions.
A section of the Criminal Code prohibiting such a defence in crimes of violence was struck down as unconstitutional following a pre-trial motion by Fagan.
Brown is expected to testify on Thursday.
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts
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