Chris Hoare found guilty of attempted murder after attack on wife
An Ottawa realtor who lured his wife into the garage and hit her twice in the head with an aluminum bat has been found guilty of attempted murder, a judge ruled Monday.
Chris Hoare, 45, had earlier pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, but pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault and choking.
Justice Robert Wadden also found Hoare guilty of choking, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
Hoare, sitting in the prisoner's box wearing a pale green dress shirt, displayed no obvious reaction to the verdict. The family of Hoare's wife, Kirsten Côté, cried tears of relief after Wadden said "guilty."
The judge-only trial featured three weeks of testimony.
The court had heard Hoare owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes and had kept it hidden from his wife. Hoare told the court he hit his wife with the bat not to kill her but to injure her so she wouldn't go shopping and discover the depths of their financial situation.
Wife recalls Hoare said he had 'surprise' for her
Côté had told the court earlier in the trial that everything had seemed normal on the morning of April 2, 2014.
But after Hoare returned from taking their children to school, Côté said he told her he had a present waiting for her in the garage of their Orleans home.
She said he asked her to close her eyes and when she did, he struck her in the head with a bat.
She begged him to stop and scrambled outside to escape, she said. When he tried to drag her back into the house, a neighbour intervened.
Hoare will return to court for sentencing on June 9.
