A jury has found a store clerk not guilty of aggravated assault on a robber in Peterborough, Ont., more than two years ago.
Following a day of deliberations, the Superior Court jury late Wednesday afternoon delivered the unanimous verdict for 24-year-old Tejeshwar Kalia, who was an international student from India at the time of the Jan. 5, 2024 incident.
Surveillance video played during the weeklong trial showed that around 2:30 a.m., a masked man entered a downtown Circle K store, carrying what was later learned to be a baseball bat wrapped in a plastic bag, along with a large knife on his hip. He removes the bag, brandishes the bat and then approaches Kalia.
A struggle ensues as a customer also tries to intervene.
The video continues as the melee heads outside the store and the clerk gains control of the bat. The masked man appears to be leaving but Kalia strikes him with the bat and then does so a second time after he falls as the customer appears to try to intervene. Kalia then calls 911.
Police ended up charging both individuals. Chief Stuart Betts defended the charge laid against the clerk in response to some public backlash.
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“This is not about politics — politics have nothing to do with the facts. This is not about race — as some have suggested,” he stated. “This is not about the perception that criminals go free while victims of crime are penalized — this is about the law.”
During the trial, jurors heard that Kalia suffered a concussion during the melee.
Court also heard that the robber was 37-year-old Jonathan Handel, who suffered severe head injuries. He was arrested soon after and later that year pleaded guilty to robbery with violence and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The trial focused on whether Kalia exceeded his claim of self-defence. Kalia’s lawyer, David O’Neill, focused on the knife, arguing his client was aware of it and couldn’t calmly assess the threat within a few frantic seconds while injured from the confrontation.
Following the verdict, O’Neill said the incident was one Kalia “had never asked for, never asked to be involved in” but that his client was “extremely happy” with the verdict.
“He always maintained that he acted in self-defence, he acted in terms of responding to the threat that was levied against him,” O’Neill said. “And he’s always impressed upon me that he had faith things would work out well for him and he’s right, it has. It really has, so he’s extremely happy with the way the jurors ruled today.”
Kalia, who provided a victim impact statement during Handel’s trial in April 2024, thanked the justice system and his supporters.
“I would like to thank all of my friends, my lawyer, my good friends on my side,” he said. “And they did well. And I would like to thank the jury. All those 12 jurors. Thanks for reviewing the video, giving the right comments and all the work you have done. I would like to thank them individually again and again.”
He says his focus now is to move on from the ordeal, which he says cost him “all his savings” in legal fees.
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