Man at centre of Waterville youth jail riot gets more time for assaulting guard, fellow inmate
A 19-year-old man serving time for murder and his role in a riot at the Waterville youth jail will serve an extra year in jail for assaults on a fellow inmate in Waterville and a guard at the provincial jail in Pictou County.
The man pleaded guilty to assault and assaulting a peace officer and was sentenced in September. The written decision was released Nov. 6.
He was 18 at the time, but he can’t be named because his presence at Waterville identifies him as having committed a youth crime.
The sentence was recommended by the Crown and defence, although they called it a “common recommendation” instead of a joint submission.
Pictou provincial court judge Del Atwood said in the decision that the one-year term was reasonable.
“It takes into account (the man’s) age and, while challenging, his realistic prospects for rehabilitation,” the judge wrote.
He said the recommendation “takes into account also the fact that (his) record is one that is populated with highly violent acts; and he is to be sentenced today for violence, which would call for an emphasis on denunciation and deterrence.”
Atwood also imposed a $100 victim fine surcharge
The man assaulted the younger inmate in October 2017, the month after he returned to Waterville jail under a Halifax youth criminal justice court order and three days after starting his sentencing hearing on the riot charges. He attacked the youth, knocking him to the ground and kicking him before staff intervened.
In March of 2017, he suckerpunched the guard at the Pictou jail while being held there following his arrest for the September 2016 riot at Waterville.
He is also awaiting trial on another charge of assaulting an inmate at Waterville. That charge was laid in May of this year after he allegedly attacked the youth at the facility. The allegation came nine days after he received a twoyear sentence for his role in the riot, which saw several guards injured.
The guards injured in the riot suffered concussions; some had broken bones. The man pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting a peace officer causing bodily harm and one of assaulting a peace officer.
The man is serving a seven-year youth sentence for the August 2014 stabbing death of Daniel Pellerin in Dartmouth.
During his sentencing hearing on the riot charges, the court heard that from January 2015 to September 2016, while in the Waterville jail, there were two incidents in which he was found to have a shank, six in which he assaulted other inmates, and one in which he made threats toward guards.