Family says fights, violence were routine prior to Hillsborough homicide

The first three Crown witnesses testified that Calvin Lewis was repeatedly threatening and violent toward his partner Tina Tingley-McAleer prior to her 2020 death. 

"She would call and say something was going on in the house, and she was scared for her life," Samantha Sanford, Tingley-McAleer's daughter, testified. 

Lewis is charged in connection with the death of his partner, Tingley-McAleer, on May 2, 2020, in their Hillsborough home south of Moncton.

Lewis has already admitted killing the 43-year-old. The trial is expected to focus on whether he had an intent to kill her. First-degree murder is one that's planned and deliberate. 

At the start of the trial, defence lawyer Nathan Gorham said Lewis was prepared to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. That's a crime involving a death that wasn't planned.

Crown prosecutors refused to accept the plea and the trial started with Sanford's testimony. 

Sanford called her mother an amazing person. They talked regularly, and after Tingley-McAleer moved in with Lewis she started getting calls about fights, threats and violence. Sometimes, in an effort to defuse a situation, her mother would call so her daughter could hear the fights, Sanford testified.

She recounted hearing about a fire at her mother's home in Riverview in September 2019 and trying to reach her by phone, not knowing if she had been inside.

When she reached her mother, she testified, Tingley-McAleer told her there had been an argument before the fire, and she had fled. Sanford testified her mother said Lewis was threatening to stab and kill her.

Tingley-McAleer's sister Laura Tingley was the second witness..

"Toward the end of it, it was almost a daily occurrence that they were fighting," Tingley said. "She could be sitting there on her phone, and he would snap and start yelling and fighting."

A few weeks before her sister's death, Tingley said Tingley-McAleer called her around 2:30 a.m. 

"[She said ] he had her by her neck that night, that they were fighting," Tingley said. She went to their home, now in Hillsborough, and sat in a vehicle with the two of them. Tingley testified that while she was there, Lewis threatened her sister but said "'but I love her.'"

An agreed statement of facts entered as an exhibit says Lewis and Tingley-McAleer were in a relationship for about two years before her death.