‘It was just total chaos’
Corrections officer describes pandemonium of riot at HMP chapel
It took one glance at a few inmates passing by to give Scott Guinchard the feeling something bad was going to happen.
“They had that look in their eyes,” said Guinchard, a corrections officer at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary (HMP). “I had that gut feeling that something was going to go down. “They had that look of intent.” Minutes later, Guinchard was in the middle of a violent melee in the prison’s chapel, where he and a few other corrections officers tried to stop a riot in which several prisoners viciously attacked another prisoner.
Guinchard was testifying in the trial of three men believed to have been involved in the Feb. 9 incident.
Justin Harvey, Calvin Kenny and Jody Clarke are charged with unlawfully participating in a riot and assault causing bodily harm.
Clarke has an additional count of breaching probation, while Harvey (the only one not in custody) faces two more charges — assault with a weapon and mischief by damaging property.
Guinchard told the court that on the afternoon before the church service, he was called to escort Harvey to the chapel. Harvey had been confined to his cell in Unit 3B because he was involved in an altercation that morning, he said.
Guinchard walked Harvey to the chapel, in the older east block of the prison, where three Salvation Army clergymen had gathered for the service with several inmates present and one corrections officer.
He then left. In the stairway, he said, he saw inmates Philip Pynn, Adam Hayden and Trevor Wheeler. He said he thought it strange that he acknowledged them, but they didn’t respond. When he got downstairs, he decided to go back to the chapel, he said. As he was nearing the chapel, he said he heard a voice that’s sounded like inmate Justin Wiseman’s say something like, “Let’s get this show on the road.”
When Guinchard got to the door, he said, “It was just total chaos.”
He said several inmates, including Pynn, Kenny, Harvey and Clarke, surrounded Kenny Green and laid punch after punch, kick after kick on him.
Guinchard did all he could to keep them from attacking Green, “trying to give him a fighting chance,” he said.
“There was no doubt in my mind they either intended to severely harm him or kill him.”
The riot was captured on surveil- lance cameras inside the chapel.
The video — which can be viewed on The Telegram’s website at www.thetelegram.com — was played again in court.
About a minute after the 31 prisoners gathered inside the chapel, one inmate runs up to the surveillance camera and covers it with paper towels.
When the towel falls about 30 seconds later, several of the men can be seen punching and kicking Green. One man, Paul Connolly, hits Green in the head with a large broken piece of pew.
“I pleaded with (Connolly), ‘ stop, stop, you’re going to kill him,’” Guinchard told the court.
Guinchard said he panicked at moments, not knowing if any other corrections officers were there helping.
He said, “there was blood everywhere,” since Green had suffered gashes to his nose and ear. He also had puncture wounds in his stomach and back from two shanks used in the attack.
When asked how sure he was in identifying the inmates he said were involved, Guinchard replied, “100 per cent.”
After things calmed down, a handful of corrections officers can be seen on video in the hallway forcing some inmates to the floor. A few, he said, had to be sprayed with OC spray, including Devon Dominix, who had come to the chapel with Green and later stomped on Pynn’s head.
The prison was in lockdown after that, he said.
Guinchard said in his 13 years working at HMP, it was the worst incident he’s seen, because of the violence and high number of inmates involved.
He said he’s still shaken by the incident, since it was so traumatic.
“The possibility of me not making it home that day crossed my mind,” said Guinchard, whose uniform was so soaked with blood he had to throw it out.
Under direct questioning by Crown prosecutor Danny Vavasour, Guinchard said prior to the incident, he noticed the chapel was unusually full. The most a service would draw was 20, he said.
He also said he found it unusual that prisoners opted to go to church rather than have recreation time.
On cross-examination by Harvey’s lawyer, Nick Avis, Guinchard admitted that if he had been in charge, he would never have put all those inmates together in such close quarters.
Guinchard said he had no knowledge beforehand that trouble would happen in the chapel.
Other corrections officers are expected to take the stand next week when the trial continues.
Justin Wiseman and Philip Pynn were also charged with the group.
Wiseman pleaded guilty to participating in a riot and mischief by damaging property. On Friday, he was sentenced to six months and 21 days in jail.
Judge Colin Flynn went along with an agreed recommendation from Vavasour and Wiseman’s lawyer, Jon Noonan.
The mischief charge was laid March 4 after a broken light bulb was found in Wiseman’s cell.
The sentence will be served consecutively with a five-year term Wiseman is serving at the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., for robberies.
When Wiseman was being led out of court, he said to reporters, “Blood in, blood out,” which is believed to be a gang-related term.
Pynn’s case has been severed from the others, as his lawyer indicated he was exhausted after Pynn’s sevenweek trial, in which Pynn was convicted of manslaughter in the 2011 shooting death of Nick Winsor.
Pynn is due in provincial court Dec. 1.
Connolly was also charged in relation to the incident. He was sentenced to two years in jail earlier this year for his involvement in that and other incidents at HMP.