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SPOTLIGHT The Similkameen
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Volume 65 Issue 11
Proudly serving the community since 1948 • www.similkameenspotlight.com
Feud ends in not guilty verdict Tara Bowie Spotlight Staff
The father and daughter charged with multiple counts of assault stemming from a June 2014 feud involving a pitchfork, baseball bat, and large sticks have been found not-guilty. Provincial Court Judge Gregory Koturbash read out his verdict Friday at the Princeton courthouse, concluding four days of trial spread over two months. The Princeton courthouse is a circuit court that only sits two days a month. Judge Koturbash said he had reasonable doubt regarding the assault charges against Marianna Gatzke and Karl Gatzke Marianna Gatzke was charged with assaulting Adonis Barron in the bloody street fight in Coalmont on June 27, 2014. Her father Karl Gatzke was charged with assaulting several of the neighbours across the street including Sandra Aguillon, Candice Aguillon and Reginald Duke. Throughout the trial the court heard several versions of what occurred that morning, but Koturbash found the behaviour of Barron “confrontational” and “aggressive,” he said during his judgement. Barron had been irate over his missing dog and believed the Gatzkes
had taken it. Earlier that morning, before the fight broke out, Barron had attended the Mosey On Inn in Coalmont and yelled and threatened the owners because they allowed Marianna Gatzke to use their internet. He believed that Marianna had sold his dog on the internet. Several witnesses including Penny, Sandra and Candice Aguillon, Duke, and Marianna Gatzke and Karl Gatzke testified that Barron spent portions of the morning walking up and down the street screaming at the Gatzkes through their gate. A short video was played during Marianna Gatzke’s testimony of Barron screaming from the roadway. “I’m going to mace you,” could be clearly heard in the video along with several other aggressive statements. Several witnesses testified that they saw Barron let the air out the tires of Karl Gatzke’s vehicle. “It’s at this point that all the stories of the witnesses begin to collide,” Koturbash said. The Gatzkes claim they feared for their lives so they felt it necessary to leave the home in search of a telephone to call police to stop Barron’s escalating behaviour. Tara Bowie Once they realized the front gate Karl Gatzke and his daughter Marianna Gatzke were acquitted Friday of assault charges stemming from continued page three a bloody feud in the small village of Coalmont.
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