A 22-year-old man will face nine years in prison for a shooting last year in the Waterloo Village area.
Rye Thomas Ethan Watt pleaded guilty in May to charges of aggravated assault and firing with intent to wound in a Oct. 26, 2024, shooting on Richmond Street in Saint John. He was sentenced last week in Saint John provincial court on that charge as well as aggravated assault and weapon possession in a prison stabbing in Renous June 25, 2023.
Prosecutor Natasha Meier had argued in September that Watt should receive eight to 10 years for the shooting and five to six years for the stabbing if they were being handled separately, but left it to the judge to craft a combined sentence that was not overly punitive when added together under the "totality" principle. Defence lawyer Charles Bryant had argued for six to eight years less time spent on remand, with the stabbing accounting for 24 months of that.
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In an agreed statement of facts read in September, court heard that Watt had been in a confrontation with a group of people, including a man named Dakota Boyce, at a community centre on Richmond Street. Watt invited Boyce to "step outside" and was chased down an alleyway by Boyce and others when he turned around and shot Boyce in the chest with a concealed firearm, according to the statement.
Watt fired another shot into the alleyway and fled, court heard. Boyce was found bleeding by police and taken to hospital, where he was treated for a bullet that had punctured his lungs and liver.
Two days later, Watt, who was a parolee and had failed to return to the Parrtown Community Correctional Facility, was arrested with a loaded, sawed-off semi-automatic rifle in his backpack, accorded to the agreed statement of facts.
Watt had been due to face trial on attempted murder and pleaded instead to aggravated assault and firing to wound as well as being unlawfully at large, possessing a loaded, prohibited firearm without a licence and possession of a firearm while prohibited.
In the 2023 prison stabbing, Meier said Watt was found with a "homemade stabbing weapon" in the Atlantic Institution after he and another prisoner attacked a third man who was left with 16 "superficial" puncture wounds and three wounds between 1 and 1.5 centimetres.
Judge Lucie Mathurin said she considered the psychological trauma Boyce faced and the stress on him and his family as a result as indicated in his victim impact statement. She said Watt was youthful and had pleaded guilty, but the seriousness of the shooting offence weighed against him.
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Watt had a difficult upbringing including verbal and physical abuse, according to his pre-sentence report. Mathurin said he also had issues with drugs and alcohol, and would become "very angry and very agitated" when using, but had checked himself out after a day of rehab on a previous attempt.
She said Watt had a significant criminal record and is facing "serious offences which require strong denunciation and deterrence." She said he could be a candidate for rehabilitation regarding issues with alcohol, but his pre-sentence report indicates "he isn't prepared to do so."
Mathurin considered a range of previous sentence decisions with relevance to Watt's case, saying that one Ontario ruling had identified a range of seven to 11 years for serious firearm offences, with another noting that sentences could go lower due to mitigating factors or as high as 15 years.
The judge said in this case, protection of the public required "crafting a sentence that fits both the offence and offender," and that a "lengthy period of incarceration" is necessary. She said the offences were closely related, with discharging a firearm being the most serious.
Mathurin said a nine-year global sentence was appropriate, with seven years for the shooting, one year for breach of a firearms ban and one year for the prison assault, with all other charges concurrent.
Watt has 539 days of remand credit, or about a year and a half, from 359 days spent in custody, Bryant said. Watt was also sentenced to a lifelong prohibited weapons ban, a DNA order, and non-communication with the victim.
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