Kurt Churchill to be sentenced next month for threatening police officer
A man whose house has been the focal point of a homicide investigation will soon find out his sentence for threatening a police officer in March 2019.
Kurt Churchill was recently convicted of telling an RNC officer "I'm going to put my boot in your f---ing head" after being picked up for public intoxication on George Street last year.
His sentencing hearing was held Friday morning at provincial court in St. John's.
Crown prosecutor Mike Murray said Churchill should get a suspended sentence, probation, and be subject to an order to collect his DNA.
Defence lawyer Robby Ash was against the DNA order, and said Churchill should receive a conditional discharge.
Ash said the altercation was "clearly an isolated and uncharacteristic incident" and a "one-off where a person had a bad night."
He pointed toward his client's lack of a prior criminal record, noting that it was his first time being convicted of an offence.
In a brief statement to the court, Churchill said he had no recollection of what happened, but apologized if he scared or intimidated the police.
Judge David Orr will issue his sentencing decision on Nov. 5.
Owns Craigmillar Avenue home linked to probe
Churchill owns a home on Craigmillar Avenue in St. John's that has been searched by police in the James Cody homicide investigation.
Cody was found shot to death on the street in July.
No charges have been laid, and the RNC has not publicly named any suspects.
Earlier this month, CBC News revealed that police had seized a number of items at 40 Craigmillar Ave. — four 9-mm bullet casings, DNA swabs from drinking glasses and a beer can, plus gunshot residue swabs.
Investigators got permission from a judge to hold onto a closed-circuit TV system and hard drive, plus two cellphones seized from the property and residence owned by Churchill.
The police also found the weapon that may have been used to kill James Cody on a property on an adjacent street, behind 40 Craigmillar Ave.
Both Cody and Churchill have past unrelated charges accusing them of links to drug trafficking. Lawyers for both filed successful applications over unfair trial delays.
Cody's drug case was tossed after it went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Churchill was acquitted after the Crown opted to call no evidence in his case related to a cocaine trafficking probe dubbed Operation Battalion.
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
