Fredericton man tried to kill wife with sword, pickaxe after argument over sex

A Fredericton man tried to kill his wife with a 30-pound decorative sword and a 36-inch pickaxe after they argued about sex, provincial court heard on Tuesday.

Clarke StephenYeomans, 31, pleaded guilty Oct. 11 to attempted murder and unlawful confinement, but details of the brutal Jan. 6attack at the couple's homeon the city's north sidewere revealed for the first time during the sentencing hearing.

Crown prosecutorChristopherLavignetold the court police foundTanya Yeomanson the couch the morning of Jan. 7 with a wound that piercedthrough herabdomen to her back,narrowly missinga major artery; puncture wounds to her hip;a gaping wound above her ear andlacerations on her neck and arms.

Her left eye was swollen shut, she had bruises"head to toe" and was covered in dried blood,saidLavigne.

The couple's 21-month-old daughter was beside heron the floor, he said, as ClarkeYeomanslistened from the prisoner's box, occasionally shaking his head.

He was found fit to stand trial in January,following a five-day psychiatric assessment.

On the evening of Jan. 6, the couplehad been drinking wine and playing video games together when they decided to have sex and an argument ensued around 11:30 p.m., the courtroom heard.

Tanya Yeomans, whose name was previously under a publication ban that was lifted Tuesday,told authorities "something snapped" inside her husband. It was "like a light switch had been flipped."

He grabbed the sword a replica of one in the action-adventurevideogameseries The Legend ofZelda and tried to stab her.

She grabbed onto the blade to try to protect herself. Then he pinned her down and struck her repeatedly with the sword. "I don't know how many times."

I said, 'Clarke, you're going to kill me!' And he replied, 'It doesn'tf--kingmatter, we're all going to dieanyways.'- Tanya Yeomans, victim

She called out for help and could hear their daughter screaming and crying in the other room.

Somehow, she managed to get away from her husband, but he dragged her back down the hallway and started beating her with the sword againboth the flat and the sharp edge.

At one point, he switched to the pickaxe, the Crown prosecutor said, noting there were "actually parts of the victim's flesh" found on the "sharper, business end."

She tried to run out of the house, but he grabbed her by the neck, choked her and smashed her head into the floor.

When she saw her blood pooling on the floor, she started to wonder if she would survive.

"I said, 'Clarke, you're going to kill me!' And he replied, 'It doesn't f--king matter, we're all going to die anyways,'" the Crown prosecutor quoted Tanya Yeomansas saying.

Her husband prevented her from calling an ambulance because he didn't want to go to jail. He broke her cellphone in halfand disconnected the internetconnections.

He continued to beat her throughout the nightas she fell in and out of consciousness.

Once he had calmed down, he told her he would "take care of her." He put a bandage on her head and tried to cleanup the bloody scene.

"In her mind, he was more concerned about going to jail than his wife dying on the floor," Lavigne told the court.

'No one's going to save you'

She was cold, shaking and could barely keep her eyes open. She put pressure on her hip wounds andpleaded with her husband to let her call for help, saying she was afraid she was going to bleed out.

"He said something along the lines of 'No one's going to save you,'" the prosecutor recounted.

They both passed out around 4 a.m.

It wasn't until 10 a.m. that Tanya Yeomans was finally able to call 911. She reported her husband had overdosed on pills, then added that she was bleeding severely and needed an ambulance.

Clarke Yeomanswas blood spattered and disoriented when police arrived. Helater said he tooknine of his prescription heart pills that night.

Police said blood was "smeared" throughout the home, with an "extensive amount" in the master bedroom and ensuite, and Tanya Yeomans wasin "great distress."

Clarke Yeomans, who has been in custody since his arrest in January and ordered to have no contact with his wife, is scheduled to be sentenced onDec. 18 at 1:30 p.m.

Judge Julian Dickson said he's facing a "lengthy term of incarceration."