A man who murdered three RCMP officers and injured two others in 2014 in Moncton has been found guilty of a prison stabbing.
Miramichi provincial court Judge Johanne-Marguerite Landry ruled Wednesday that Justin Christen Bourque and Christian Enang Clyke committed aggravated assault and possessed a weapon.
“They are found guilty of both charges,” Landry said.
The two stood trial over two days in May on the charges alleging they had shanks, or homemade weapons, and assaulted Chase Spence at the Atlantic Institution prison on May 3, 2022. All three were inmates in the maximum security prison southwest of Miramichi.
WATCH | Man who killed 3 Moncton Mounties found guilty of crimes in prison: 
Bourque guilty of prison stabbing
Justin Bourque, who killed three RCMP officers in Moncton in 2014, has been found guilty of two charges related to a 2022 prison stabbing.
Clyke, who doesn’t have a lawyer, took the stand to testify and argued he acted in self-defence when he stabbed Spence.
Bourque didn’t testify and his lawyer had argued the Crown had failed to prove his guilt.
Landry rejected the self-defence claim, saying it didn’t meet an air of reality test.
Crown prosecutor Jean-Guy Savoie declined to comment on the verdict, as did Bourque’s lawyer Simon Wood.
While the events at the centre of the trial occurred in May 2022, the charges were only laid in November 2023.
Christian Clyke is also serving a life sentence for a murder in Nova Scotia. (Andrew Robson)
Six Crown witnesses and Clyke himself testified during the trial.
Clyke had testified Spence had sent a note before being moved into the same unit as Bourque and Clyke that threatened to attack the first person he saw.
No such note was presented at trial, and the judge said Clyke could have alerted prison officials about the threat but didn’t.
Surveillance video that captured most of the events was shown during the trial.
It showed Spence entering the same prison unit as Bourque and Clyke around 1:30 p.m. while carrying bags of belongings. While walking through a hall with cell doors, he and Bourque exchanged words. The video doesn’t include audio of the interaction.
The judge said Spence made a gesture and made contact with Bourque’s throat. Both then appeared to pull out weapons, the judge said.
Spence dropped his bags and moved up the hall where Clyke was standing. Spence ran past Clyke, who followed him into another area with Bourque.
The video shows Spence falling to the floor, but the actual stabbing happens just outside the video frame. Clyke is shown walking away bleeding.
Stabbed several times
The judge said medical records entered as evidence say Spence had various minor wounds and one stab wound that penetrated his chest wall.
Spence didn’t testify in the trial. An RCMP officer testified that neither Spence nor the two accused provided statements to police.
Bourque offered no defence evidence and opted not to testify.
Sentence has been scheduled for Sept. 24 for Bourque and Oct. 23 for Clyke.
Bourque is serving life sentences for the murders of constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Doug Larche and Dave Ross on June 4, 2014. He also wounded constables Darlene Goguen and Eric Dubois.
Clyke, 33, is serving a life sentence for the 2011 shooting death of Angela Hall in Dartmouth, N.S.
He is appealing that case and is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of second-degree murder for killing Richard Alan King, another Atlantic Institution inmate, on Oct. 6, 2022.