Marriott among 15 charged in attack

Halifax Regional Police have charged 15 inmates at the provincial jail in Burnside — including a member of the notorious Marriott crime family from Halifax — in connection with a serious assault against a fellow inmate earlier this month.

Sources says Brian James (B.J.) Marriott orchestrated the Dec. 2 attack in a cell on 46-year-old Stephen Francis Anderson within half an hour of Anderson's arrival in one of the units at the jail.

Anderson, who is currently before the courts on 19 weapons, assault and drug charges, was beaten and stabbed, and taken to hospital with what police described at the time as life-threatening injuries. He has since been released.

Police charged Marriott and the other 14 inmates on Thursday. They are facing charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, forcible confinement, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and obstructing a peace officer.

It was reported that some of the inmates created a human wall around Anderson's cell while he was being attacked, preventing guards from intervening.

The other inmates charged are:

• 41-year-old Kaz Henry Cox

• 25-year-old Austin Michael Mitton

• 32-year-old Andriko Jamal Crawley

• 24-year-old Wesley Todd Hardiman

• 32-year-old Colin Eric Ladelpha

• 32-year-old Kevin Edward Clarke-McNeil

• 35-year-old Matthew Ross Lambert

• 27-year-old Robert Victor Fraser

• 31-year-old Matthew Francis Coaker

• 29-year-old Kirk Kenman Carridice

• 32-year-old Omar Orlando McIntosh

• 40-year-old Geevan Nagendran

• 40-year-old Sophon Sek

• 22-year-old Jacob Matthew Lilly

Lilly has also been charged with assaulting a peace officer.

Three days after the attack, Marriott was sentenced to nine months in jail for two counts of breaching a recognizance and one of breaching a peace bond.

Marriott was released from prison in October 2018 after serving all 16 years, four months and 22 days of a sentence for manslaughter and other offences, including assault with a weapon, conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the Dartmouth jail, and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at the Springhill Institution.

Cox was arrested at the jail in November and charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Triston Reece this past summer. Reece, 19, was shot on Scot Street in Halifax on the night of July 26.

McIntosh was in Kentville provincial court this week, where he is facing charges of possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, using a firearm in the commission of an offence, assault with a weapon, wearing a mask while committing an offence, extortion with a firearm, and careless use of a firearm.

Lilly is facing charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with an assault in downtown Halifax early on the morning of July 7, in which a man was attacked with an edged weapon.

More than a year ago, Nagendran was sentenced to two years in custody for possession of opium for the purpose of trafficking, but that was reduced to 83 days because of time served on remand.

Hardiman was arrested and charged with nine weapons offences in November after police went to a Cole Harbour home following reports of a man pointing a handgun at people inside a home.