THE trial of two men accused of brutally beating a man at the side of Hwy. 1 in North Vancouver got underway this week with testimony from the alleged victim.
Ryan McCaffery, a 30-year-old North Vancouver father of three, told the provincial court he was simply trying to get home when an interaction with another driver at the entrance to Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing escalated into road rage and an eventual fight at the side of the road that left him with permanent injuries.
Gerardo Arguello, 38, from Vancouver, has been charged with assault with a weapon in the incident and Norman Segundo, a 35-year-old Californian, faces one count of assault. Both have also been charged with assault causing harm. They have pled not guilty.
Taking the stand as a Crown witness, McCaffery described how, on New Year's Day 2011, he was trying to merge onto the bridge from the McGill onramp, but no one would let him in. Running out of lane, he sped up to merge before he had to drive on the shoulder. In the process, he cut off Arguello.
Arguello, who was behind the wheel, and Segundo became enraged at being cut off and pulled their vehicle alongside him to yell, according to McCaffery.
"It was angry; it was violent," McCaffery said in court. "They were screaming pretty hard."
McCaffery said he then pulled into the passing lane to put some space between himself and the minivan. As he was heading up the cut, he saw the accused barreling up the highway and cutting across three lanes of traffic only to slam on their brakes in front of him, causing a fender bender.
McCaffery said as soon as he got out to inspect the damage, Segundo was already coming at him, punching and kicking.
"I saw rage in his eyes," he said. "He just came out and next thing I know, I'm being kicked and punched."
While McCaffery was trying to fend off Segundo, Arguello fetched a baseball bat from the rear of his minivan and joined in the fray, McCaffery testified.
"The next thing I know, I was smashed in the head with a baseball bat," he said. "While swinging the bat, he said he had kids in the car and that if they were hurt, I was dead."
McCaffery testified he could not remember how the fight ended. Several witnesses stopped and called 9-1-1. RCMP officers and paramedics arrived shortly after.
McCaffery was taken to hospital where he received seven staples in his head to close the wound opened by the bat. He told the court he continues to have daily headaches and decreased strength in his arm, and that he has since been diagnosed with chronic pain.
Conducting the cross examination, Segundo's lawyer, David Hopkins, suggested it was in fact McCaffery - who stands about six feet tall and weighs around 300 pounds - who was the aggressor in the fight with the much smaller Segundo.
"I'm going to suggest . . . it went along the lines of you attempting to take a swing at the passenger and the passenger defended himself by kicking at you," Hopkins said.
"I disagree with that," McCaffery responded.
Arguello's lawyer Andi MacKay noted some inconsistencies between McCaffery's testimony and the original statement he made to police before being treated at Lions Gate Hospital.
Reading from the statement, MacKay noted that McCaffery told police he planned to get out of his vehicle to yell at the accused "because what he did was disgusting and stupid."
During Wednesday's continuation of the trial, testimony from the first witness on the scene and one of the 9-1-1 callers largely corroborated McCaffery's version of events with a few notable exceptions.
Navida Suleman, who was parked just a few car lengths behind McCaffery during the melee, said she saw the Arguello swing a hockey stick over his shoulder at McCaffery. Her testimony, however, made no mention of Segundo.
The trial is expected to continue into next week. In the meantime, McCaffery has also named Arguello and Segundo in a civil lawsuit alleging damages from attack. That case has yet to be tried.
