A 32-year-old Barrie father took the stand Tuesday and said he was acting only in self-defense during a drunken altercation where another man ended up with stab wounds to the back, face and leg in a downtown hotel room more than three years ago.

Rehano Harold, 32, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault causing bodily harm in an Ontario Superior Court judge trial before Justice Robert Gattrell at Barrie Court.

During his testimony in his own defense on Tuesday, Harold also claimed that the alleged victim’s girlfriend was the instigator that led her boyfriend, Aaron Lewis, to attack him, giving Lewis the knife that he was able to He snatches it from Lewis as both of them. the men fought.

According to Harold, things turned violent after he refused a drink from Abby, Lewis’ girlfriend, who was called to testify by the Crown last week. Shortly thereafter, she encouraged her boyfriend to attack him, Harold testified from the stand through cross-examination. defense attorney, Robert Chartier.

“She told (Lewis) ‘I’m not going to hold you back, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,'” Harold told the court. “I saw Aaron put his necklace on and he started coming towards me.

“He grabbed me with one hand and hit me with the other.”

The initial confrontation resulted in his violently banging his head against the wall of the hotel room and was followed by both men beating each other to the ground, Harold testified.

It was the only part of his evidence that confirmed parts of Lewis’s testimony last week – that Harold’s head caused a hole in the wall.

But critically, the accused directly contradicted Lewis’s evidence, particularly regarding the knife and how it appeared when Abby gave it to Lewis.

“I heard Abby say ‘here, baby,'” Harold testified, to describe handing the gun to her boyfriend.

Harold, who also claimed the knife did not belong to him, said the two men were on the ground for 15 to 30 seconds and that the weapon was dislodged from Lewis’ hand during that time.

“I was just trying to get away and defend myself,” Harold testified, adding that he was likely kicked out of Lewis’s grip by one of the women who was present and trying to break up the fight.

Lewis, in his testimony last week, identified the knife as the one that cut him in three separate places on his body, including a slash mark on the left side of his face that extends to just below his left eye.

Video evidence from the hotel room bathroom, which was introduced before Harold testified, clearly showed two holes in the back of Lewis’s shirt.

Both couples gathered at the hotel on the afternoon of April 9, 2021 to celebrate Harold’s girlfriend’s birthday. A frantic search for his glasses later ensued and resulted in him dumping the contents of Abby’s bag on a bed in an attempt to find them, mistaking the bag for his own girlfriend instead.

It was another key point that differed significantly from what the court heard last week from Lewis, who testified that Harold became agitated when his keys were hidden to prevent him from driving home after drinking too much.

Harold said he knew the location of his keys and that it was irrelevant anyway because he had no intention of driving home. And even if he did, he said he didn’t drink as much as the others and was fine to drive. In fact, Harold claimed, Lewis and his girlfriend were drunk out of control.

The case, which was delayed by other time-consuming court cases and technology issues, ended with Crown attorney Susie Safar cross-examining the accused, trying to cast doubt on Harold’s version of what happened that night.

With only final applications remaining, the case is expected to be in Gattrell’s hands soon to make his decision.