Court of Appeal for Ontario
Date: 2025-04-17
Docket: COA-23-CR-0483
Panel: Michal Fairburn, David M. Paciocco, Mahmud Rahman
Between
His Majesty the King
Respondent
and
Hang Shi
Appellant
Mark Halfyard, for the appellant
Martin Heslop, for the respondent
Heard and released orally: April 16, 2025
On appeal from the conviction entered on January 19, 2023 by Justice George W. King of the Superior Court of Justice.
Reasons for Decision
Background
[1] Mr. Shi was convicted of aggravated assault in connection with significant injuries that his wife sustained after a disagreement they had in a parking lot. A bystander testified to witnessing Mr. Shi strike his wife with his vehicle and then drive away before parking nearby. Before the police arrived, Mr. Shi sent WeChat messages to his mother-in-law in which he referred to an “altercation”, and stated that his wife “blocked my car” and that the vehicle “brought her down”. The trial judge rejected his testimony denying that his vehicle struck his wife, as well as the innocent explanations he offered for the text messages he sent.
Analysis
[2] We do not accept any of Mr. Shi’s grounds of appeal. The trial judge considered and adequately addressed the reliability of the bystander’s eyewitness testimony, which was materially confirmed by Mr. Shi’s own text messages. He did not err in applying the burden of proof to Mr. Shi’s testimony, nor did he reverse the onus in applying the first two steps of the rule in R. v. W.(D.), [1991] 1 S.C.R. 742. He stated the law correctly, and the language he used appropriately and clearly conveyed that he did not believe Mr. Shi’s testimony, and that his testimony did not raise a reasonable doubt. We see no error in the trial judge’s treatment of Mr. Shi’s attempt to move his injured wife as inculpatory after-the-fact conduct. That inference was open to him, and he did not rely upon it to jump to a finding of guilt without considering the balance of the evidence.
Disposition
[3] The appeal is dismissed.
Michal Fairburn
David M. Paciocco
Mahmud Rahman