Not guilty of uttering threats

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

A Penticton woman has been found not guilty of uttering threats against a man she admitted to assaulting.

Jilane King stood trial Wednesday morning for uttering threats, attempting to pervert or obstruct justice and a breach of probation. That comes from an alleged incident last February, when a man King had previously assaulted accused her of threatening him against attending her assault trial.

King entered guilty pleas to assaulting Martin Bukta and one of the investigating police officers on Dec. 13, 2015, but King's and Bukta's accounts vary.

"I was assaulted, beat on," Bukta said. "Just because I didn't have a cigarette."

He told the court he didn't know the name of his assailant, but described her as a "dark-haired, heavy set native woman," pointing to King, who sat in the courtroom pews.

King agrees that she asked Bukta for a cigarette, but she says the interaction went on longer. The two went inside, where King says Bukta asked her for oral sex – at which point she "blacked out" and started hitting him.

Prior to King's testimony, defence lawyer Kathryn Lundman suggested to Bukta that he had asked for oral sex. At that point the 69-year-old's demeanour – otherwise sombre and quiet – lit up.

"What? You've got to be kidding me," Bukta said.

Both parties claimed difficulties remembering the night, with King blaming alcohol. 

Following the initial incident, King was accused of biking past Bukta near the M&M Food Market on Skaha Lake Road on Feb. 10, 2016, and threatening Bukta against attending her trial for the assault.

Bukta said King rode by on a blue bike and made threats upon his life if he went to court.

"You show up in court, you piece of s***, you're dead," the Crown prosecutor read from the police report on the issue.

But King denied even being on a bike on that date, and told the court she had been having back issues. She said she had been to the hospital over four times between the previous December and the following March.

When asked why Bukta knew it was a blue bike, he told the court it was because he had seen it – though King said her bike was grey. Lundman argued that Bukta's testimony wasn't reliable, because of his cloudy memory.

Judge Gale Sinclair said while he had concerns that it was King biking by Bukta, he couldn't say beyond a reasonable doubt that it was her and found her not guilty.

Both lawyers agreed that a pre-sentence report would be needed heading into King's sentencing for her other charges. King has pled guilty to the two assault charges, but not to unlawfully being in in a dwelling.