A trial started last Monday for a man who allegedly smashed his neighbours’ car windows and then assaulted his neighbour and her daughter.
St. Albert resident Matthew Borloi pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault and two counts of mischief — damage under $5,000.
However, Borloi and his lawyer, Bukola Abioye, did not contest that Borloi smashed the windows, or that he assaulted one of the victims. Rather, they argued Borloi’s actions were triggered by an ongoing conflict with his neighbours.
Crown prosecutor Ian Ross called five witnesses: an RCMP officer who attended the scene; Borloi’s neighbours Doreen Kerr, David O’Connor, and Kim Baril; and Kerr’s daughter, Ashley Sturrock.
Neighbour Kerr and her daughter Sturrock took up the bulk of the witness time in a trial that ran all day.
Sturrock said she arrived the at her mother’s house on the morning of Nov. 4, 2023 to drop off her two children so her mother and stepfather could babysit while she went to work.
She saw that the windshields and passenger side windows of her stepfather’s truck and her mother’s car had been destroyed. She also noticed what looked like a trail of blood dividing the cement driveway that is shared by the neighbouring townhomes.
Taking a closer look, she realized the substance was paint. She went inside to find that her mother and stepfather were unhurt, and then called the police.
When Sturrock left the house to take video of the damaged vehicles, Borloi appeared in the driveway, she said.
Borloi told her that he had also called the police.
“Something snapped,” in Borloi when Kerr stepped out of the house, Sturrock said.
“Next thing I know he’s telling me he’s going to peel the skin off my face and that he was the devil,” she said.
Sturrock said she stepped between Borloi and Kerr. That’s when Borloi grabbed her by the hair and started swinging her head, she said.
She told court that she managed to kick Borloi away. Borloi then turned his attention to Kerr, bringing his fists down on Kerr’s head in a “windmill-like” motion, she claimed.
Borloi stopped beating Kerr when his mother called him back inside, she said.
Kerr testified that Borloi painted the red line a few days before the incident.
He threw Sturrock against one of the vehicles with so much force the impact left a dent in the car, she claimed.
“He grabbed me too and just started wailing on me,” she said.
Cross examination
Defence counsel Bukola Abioye spent much of the morning and afternoon cross-examining the Crown’s witnesses.
Video taken from a security camera placed outside the front entrance to Borloi’s house showed Sturrock throwing something at Borloi.
Sturrock said she didn’t recall throwing anything but confirmed the video was accurate.
Kerr testified that she and Borloi got along well when Borloi was younger. Something changed when Kerr raked up perennials in Borloi’s yard, she said. Borloi thought that Kerr had “dug up his plants.”
She told the court Borloi had once called the police on her, claiming that he caught her on camera throwing a toy into his yard.
He had also barged into her garage in his underwear one day, demanding that she turn off an electric fireplace.
Borloi told Kerr that he painted the red dividing line because he was “making boundaries” between the two properties, Kerr said.
Abioye submitted as evidence a photograph of a rust-coloured mark on Borloi’s side of the driveway.
She also showed court two videos taken from one of Borloi’s security cameras, which surveyed the driveway.
A video taken at night recorded Kerr repositioning the security camera.
Kerr said she moved the camera because she didn’t like that Borloi was monitoring her.
Another video showed Kerr pouring something from a jug onto Borloi’s section of the driveway.
Kerr said she was trying to wash off the red paint.
Bullying and homophobia
Borloi told court that his actions were the result of a manic psychosis episode that was triggered by mistreatment from his neighbours. He said that his neighbours made fun of his bipolar disorder and his sexuality.
He alleged that Kerr would taunt him by dancing on the line between their properties and smiling at his security camera. She was trying to provoke him into an episode of psychosis, he claimed.
Borloi said he painted the line to convey to his neighbours that he did not want to interact with them. He used tattoo ink because it is water soluble and would have washed off naturally.
Seeing the rust-coloured stain on his driveway that morning triggered a manic episode, he said. The night before, watching his security camera, he and his mother saw Kerr pouring something that he assumed to be “tar or cat puke” onto the driveway. It was actually a blend of herbs and spices, Borloi said.
His aggressive statements to Sturrock and Kerr could be attributed to his mania, he said.
Kerr punched him in the rib cage after he grabbed Sturrock by the hair, he said. He carried Kerr across the red line and placed her near her car, he said. He claimed that he was “not rough, but firm” with Kerr.
Borloi’s mother, Shawna O’Neil, also took the stand and told court the neighbours had been “psychologically, emotionally and verbally abusing” her son for years.
In closing arguments, Abioye said seeing the red mark triggered Borloi “beyond his control.”
The neighbours indicated in their testimonies they did not take Borloi’s boundaries seriously, she said.
Kerr started the assault when she punched Borloi in the ribs, she said.
Ross said the “evidence between the Crown and defence on what matters is not in dispute.”
Borloi had admitted to smashing the windows and to assaulting Sturrock, he said.
Kerr had a right to intercede when her daughter was being assaulted, he said.
Justice Carrie-Anne Downey will give her decision on May 13.
