Selvin Chinnery’s attorney said he fired the nail gun in self-defence because a man in a jeep was trying to run him down.
Mr. Chinnery earlier had pleaded guilty to being armed with an offensive weapon, but his attorney, Marie-Lou Creque, offered this justification to the Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
According to the allegations, Mr. Chinnery and Dexter Donovan were in a dispute over payment for the sale of Mr. Chinnery’s vehicle on Feb. 13, 2012. Before the transaction was complete, Mr. Donovan allegedly entered the vehicle and sped off, Senior Crown Counsel Valston Graham told the court.
But first, Ms. Creque claimed, he drove directly toward Mr. Chinnery.
“The discharging of the nail gun occurred because Mr. Donovan was driving toward him as if to run him down,” she told the court.
Magistrate Tamia Richards said this explanation seemed like a good justification, and asked Mr. Graham whether or not he accepted that account of events.
Initially, the prosecutor said no, but then he asked that the matter be adjourned so the Crown could review the facts of the case and decide whether or not to proceed to sentencing.
“I’d like to be as fair to him as possible,” Mr. Graham said of the defendant before the matter was stood down.
Mr. Chinnery, 42, confessed to his role in the events and admitted to police that he fired the nail gun. “I’m not saying I was right — and I did apologise to Dexter,” he told the court Friday. “I was wrong.”
The court also heard that Mr. Chinnery has a previous conviction for possession of an illegal firearm.
“He must have a thing for triggers,” Ms. Richards said during the proceedings.
Mr. Chinnery is scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 27.