Three of four charges were dropped against a Dalhousie medical student who allegedly made threats about killing people at the university last year, after the Crown said there wasn’t a reasonable prospect of conviction.
What was supposed to be a one-day trial for Stephen Gregory Tynes on Monday, quickly turned into a peace bond hearing after Crown prosecutor Eric Taylor withdrew the charges.
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They included two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm and one count of engaging in threatening conduct.
Outside court, Taylor said in reviewing the case and witness testimony in the lead-up to the trial it became apparent that part of the case was in question.
“It became relatively clear that the evidence we had to support the criminal charges weren’t as strong as we had initially thought,” said Taylor.
He said there had been some “give and take” around what was actually remembered when it came to what was said by the accused.
“We determined that with that give and take we weren’t able to satisfy the court beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Scroll to the bottom for a live blog of courtroom coverage.
Tynes’s trial on a charge of unauthorized possession of a prohibited device in relation to an overcapacity cartridge magazine is scheduled for Aug. 19.
Tynes’s psychiatrist testified as part of the peace bond hearing that she went to police with her concerns because she felt the daughter of a university official was in imminent danger of being harmed.
Dr. Terry Chisholm said she had been seeing Tynes periodically for about a year when she became concerned about his state of agitation following a session on Aug. 20, 2015, which included theoretical musings about a mass shooting.
“He was feeling that he was being treated unfairly and that he was being forced out of the medical school,” said Chisholm.
She said Tynes talked in a “cold and dispassionate” way of doing harm to the daughter of Dr. Evelyn Sutton, who was the associate dean of undergraduate medical education at Dalhousie. Sutton, whose daughter was also in the medical program, had been working with Tynes in relation to his academic performance in the program.
Chisholm said Tynes had expressed anger at Sutton before the conversation switched to her daughter, Ellen MacDonald.
“He said that he would stab her,” said Chisholm.
When she asked why, Chisholm said Tynes told her that MacDonald would never be treated the same way he was in being brought before a progress committee at the medical school.
Chisholm said she then asked him if he was also thinking of harming himself but he said no, although he later talked about what it would take for him to commit suicide.
“He started to talk about … if I took a gun and killed 10 or 15 people at the medical school, if I did that then I would shoot myself.”
Chisholm said Tynes told her that he didn’t have a gun but he knew where he could gain access to one.
She said Tynes left her office, slamming the door after crumpling up and throwing an appointment slip.
Chisholm said she soon after called 911 to inform police and then called Dr. Sutton to warn her of the potential danger to her daughter.
“I was quite concerned for her (MacDonald) and so I felt it was my duty to inform her (Sutton) and to inform police,” Chisholm said.
During cross examination defence lawyer Stan MacDonald took issue with Chisholm’s account, asking her whether she had told Tynes that she would call police as a result of their conversation.
MacDonald said that might have accounted for his client’s anger, because he thought he had answered questions during the session in confidence.
Chisholm said her understanding was that she had told Tynes that she would have to inform others about his intent to hurt people.
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Sutton later testified that Chisholm phoned to tell her that Tynes had left her office in an agitated state and was threatening to hurt her and her daughter Ellen.
“She asked me, ‘Where’s Ellen?”‘ said Sutton. “She was very concerned and she asked me a few times ‘Where’s Ellen’ and I reassured her that she was OK, that she was in Ontario.”
Sutton said Chisholm had told her that she told Tynes that she would have to call police if he didn’t stay in her office.
Tynes was arrested later on Aug. 20 in Truro, N.S.
Search warrant documents filed by police say they later went to an apartment in Halifax where they seized 1,834 rounds of ammunition for rifles, a Russian SKS rifle, a Henry Golden Boy .22-calibre rifle, a banana clip for a rifle, a baggie with three spring clips and bore cleaner, two ammunition boxes, a firearms acquisition card and a gun club card.
Judge Dan MacCrury will rule on the peace bond, which is opposed by the defence, on June 21.
Tynes has been charged with sexual assault in a separate incident.
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