"I'm giving you a bit of a break today."

Justice Alphonsous Faour spoke to the young man in the prisoner's box with a slow cadence, gentle but firm. Jesse Lewis leaned over, elbows on his knees and nodded his head.

After more than a year spent behind bars for shooting a man point blank with a sawed-off shotgun, Lewis was vindicated.

"But I hope that gun is disposed of completely," Faour told him.

The feud between 21-year-old Lewis and 33-year-old Bernard Mason came to a violent head in April 2017, when Mason barged into Lewis's home in Avondale in a drunken, violent rage.

The two men had been in a vicious tangle, both sleeping with each other's girlfriends, the judge said.

Pleaded self-defence

Mason entered the house that night and smashed cupboards with his own head, leaving his blood smeared across the cabinets and walls. He then grabbed a female guest, physically assaulting her, the court heard.

Moments later, Lewis grabbed a sawed-off shotgun and fired into Mason's knee as he reached for the barrel.

According to a report in the Telegram, Mason needed two surgeries to repair the damage to his shattered knee cap.

Lewis speaks to lawyer Mark Gruchy after being acquitted of aggravated assault and weapons charges. (Mark Cumby/CBC)

During the trial, Lewis's lawyer, Mark Gruchy, took a self-defence approach. According to the Telegram, the Crown prosecutor countered by saying that defence might fly in Texas, "but not in Canada."

But in his decision on Tuesday, the judge ruled Lewis was reasonable to fear for his life as a much larger man tore through his house in a violent rage. He said Lewis was right to grab the gun, and justified to put Mason on the ground with it.

'Stay away from him'

After the shot was fired, Lewis and some friends got in a car and headed west. They were pursued by police and eventually apprehended using a spike strip near Clarenville.

Lewis said he didn't call the police because he didn't trust them to take him seriously. After reviewing the case, Faour suggested Lewis may have been right.

Mason was never charged with anything related to the night of the shooting, but Faour said his actions could have led to charges for impaired driving, assault and home invasion.

While Lewis was acquitted of charges related to the shooting, Lewis was slapped with a driving ban — however, it only applies in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Lewis's family cried and smiled as the not guilty verdicts were read. After the aggravated assault and weapons charges were thrown out, he was convicted on several breaches of conditions.

It is expected those convictions will be dealt with by way of time served, meaning Lewis won't have to spend another day in jail if he stays out of trouble.

Upon his release, however, he would end up living a stone's throw away from the man he shot in the leg.

"I'm sure this trial will not change anything between you two," Faour told Lewis. "I would suggest you stay away from him."

Lewis then stood and asked the judge if he was allowed to move to Ontario to live with his father, go to work there and stay clear of Bernard Mason.

"I think that would be in everybody's best interest," Faour told him.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador