Man who fled police jailed

Michael Robert Bryenton sentenced on several charges, including skipping jail time

A P.E.I. man who hid under a deck after jumping a fence while he fled police was sentenced recently to 60 days in jail on several charges.

Michael Robert Bryenton, 40, appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown where he was sentenced for mischief, being unlawfully at large and two counts of breaching his probation.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Chad McQuaid told the court Bryenton was sentenced in May to 60 days in jail to be served on weekends on unrelated matters.

That sentence included probation, but the court heard Bryenton didn’t report as required.

McQuaid said Bryenton was sentenced again in August to 90 days in jail and didn’t report to the correctional centre to serve his weekend sentence multiple times.

The court heard the police arrested Bryenton on Oct. 11 after finding him while he was wanted on a warrant.

Bryenton fled, climbed over a fence and hid under a deck where he damaged a lattice, McQuaid said.

Defence lawyer Alex Dalton told the court substance abuse is the underlying issue for Bryenton who has potential but needs to kick his habit.

Before hearing his sentence, Bryenton said he had been doing good.

“I’d like to apologize for my actions,” he said.

After hearing submissions from the Crown and defence, Douglas referred to Bryenton’s 71-page record, saying it started around the same time Douglas became a judge about 20 years ago.

“It’s time we parted ways,” Douglas said.

Bryenton was given credit of 12 days for time spent in custody since his arrest leaving him 48 days still to serve for the most recent offences.

That time was added to the 78 days still to serve on Bryenton’s previous sentence and it will all be served as straight time.