Ray Newman has filed notice to appeal the conviction and sentence he received last month for assaulting his ex-girlfriend at his home in Paradise.
Following a trial in provincial court in St. John’s, Newman was found guilty of assault and sentenced on June 27 to 60 days in prison.
Papers filed with the Court of Appeal Newfoundland and Labrador state Newman is seeking the verdict of guilty to be set aside for a not guilty verdict, and if that does not occur, he asks that the sentence of 60 days in prison be replaced with a 60-day conditional sentence.
During the trial, Newman's ex-girlfriend testified the pair had been drinking and began arguing on the way back to Newan’s Paradise home after a night out. She told the court Newman punched her, and she said he tried to drag her out of the house by the leg and put his hands around her neck and choked her until she blacked out.
Forensic photos of the woman's injuries showed bruising and swelling around her eye, marks on her cheek and neck, vertical scratches on the centre of her chest and abrasions on her knee.
Judge David Orr said during sentencing that the fact Newman had not pleaded guilty and had taken no responsibility for the assault took the consideration of house arrest off the table.
Newsman’s grounds for appeal state the trial judge erred on consideration (or lack thereof) of physical evidence in that he overstated the believability of the evidence of the victim and understated the believability of the evidence of Newman, and in doing so failed to find reasonable doubt where reasonable doubt existed.
In particular, the documents claim Orr failed to take into account medical evidence filed by consent of the Crown and defence that confirms there were no injuries to the victim’s neck, and the judge wrongly determined that what was described as red swollen cheeks were consistent with assault, and thus disregarded the evidence of Newman to the otherwise.
As to sentence, Newman states the judge erred in law by taking the consideration of a conditional sentence order off the table because Newman had not pleaded guilty or taken responsibility for the offence.
The Crown has yet to file a response.
In 2012, Newman was acquitted of murdering his estranged wife, Chrissy Predham-Newman, in her Airport Heights apartment five years earlier. During his murder trial, a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge ruled to exclude a portion of the evidence presented by police, saying officers had made a mistake by not reading Newman his rights until 30 minutes into their interview with him, at which point he had already told them that he had been at Predham-Newman's apartment the day she died. Newman's acquittal was upheld upon appeal.
