Violent courthouse escape ends in 14-year prison term

A Whitecourt drug dealer, who spent slightly more than one hour on the run after a violent escape from a provincial courthouse, was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison.

Clayton Lee Ness, 32, sat sullenly in the prisoner’s box as Court of Queen’s Bench Justice June Ross sentenced him for the February 2013 escape in which one sheriff was shot and another beaten.

“Sheriffs absolutely deserve the protection of the courts when they are attacked on the job,” Ross said. “Mr. Ness showed a reckless disregard for the safety of others. Behaviour like this is not tolerated.”

A dozen provincial sheriffs listened to the decision and then hugged the two injured sheriffs, John Griffiths and Allan Buttree, in the courtroom gallery.

The day of his escape, Ness was held in a courtroom cell as he waited for his appearance on drug charges. The sheriffs had forgotten the keys to lock the cells. Ness fell out of his cell when he leaned against the unlocked door. The incident turned violent.

The six- foot- six, 300- pound Ness and a second prisoner attacked the nearest sheriff, Griffiths, who was 71 at the time. Moments later, Buttree ran into the holding cell area and saw his colleague beneath the prisoners.

All four men struggled for the sheriffs’ weapons. The second prisoner fired Griffiths’ gun. Two bullets went through the wall into an adjoining courtroom. The 20 people inside stampeded for the door.

Buttree’s fourth finger on his right hand was shot off as he and Ness wrestled for his handgun. He fell to the floor screaming. Moments later, the two prisoners each held a gun.

“I thought I was going to die,” Griffiths said in his victim impact statement. “It is the worst feeling a person can have.”

With Ness behind the wheel, the prisoners drove away in the van belonging to the sheriffs. The pair ended up stuck in a snow drift at a farm outside Whitecourt. RCMP officers arrived and both men surrendered.

“Things got crazy,” Ness told officers as they arrested him.

Griffiths, who served 25 years with the RCMP and another 23 as a sheriff, has since retired.

Buttree, who was 44 when the attack occurred, hasn’t been able to return to work because of his injured hand.

Ness pleaded guilty to nine charges. His 14-year sentence is consecutive to the five-year sentence for trafficking he is already serving.

His co- accused, Jake Allan MacIntyre, is scheduled to go to trial in November.