Gay Partner Pleads Guilty to Domestic Assault and Damage to Property

Jason Belisle

The August tenth decision of the Supreme Court on Section Fifty-Three of the Criminal Code has led to some gay couples becoming more open about their domestic disputes and going to court. Thirty-four year old Jason Belisle Garcia was read two counts of common assault on Maurice Middleton and a count of damage to property for a six-hundred dollar laptop which he allegedly set on fire. According to Middleton, Garcia hit him in the back of the head during a dispute and as he walked away Garcia continued hitting him in the stomach and kicking him. Middleton went to report the matter to police, and in the middle of doing so he showed them a text message he had just received from Garcia in which he claimed he had set his belongings on fire.  Police rushed over and found smoke coming from the house; the laptop was on fire. Garcia readily admitted that he had not only set the laptop, but everything else in the house on fire. Before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, he pleaded guilty and was fined three hundred dollars on each charge, due by November fifteenth, 2016. Magistrate Frazer also ordered him to pay compensation of six hundred dollars to Middleton which he must pay in instalments of fifty dollars weekly.