Adjournment in second Wedgeport mailbox bombing sentencing

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

While one individual has already received a two-month conditional sentence and house arrest for his involvement in a slew of mailbox bombings in the Wedgeport area, the sentencing of a second person was postponed to Sept. 9 when the matter appeared on the court docket on Monday, July 14.

Eighteen-year-old Kevin Figueira Maio was not sentenced on four counts of mischief and six counts of possession of an explosive substance. The defence asked for the adjournment, which the Crown did not oppose.

The defence said it requested the adjournment to give it more time to go over the pre-sentence report, and also because the Crown attorney who has been handling the case was not available on Monday.

Last month 19-year-old Matthew Jeff Doucette was sentenced for his role in the mailbox bombings, which occurred last fall between the dates of Nov. 4 and Nov. 9. During this timeframe the Yarmouth rural RCMP detachment received around a half dozen complaints from residents of Wedgeport and Little River Harbour about their mailboxes having been blown up.

During the sentencing, the Crown said Doucette had admitted to putting the explosive devices in all of the mailboxes. All of the devices exploded and damaged the mailboxes, with the exception of one.

“The bomb did not go off so Doucette went back and checked and it blew up when he opened the mailbox,” Crown attorney Pierre Muise said during the sentencing.

In the majority of cases an explosive substance had been placed inside pop bottles. In one case a copper pipe was used.

No one was injured, but the potential for injury was certainly there noted both the Crown and judge.

“Obviously these were serious offences, creating a very dangerous situation,” said Muise.

During the sentencing Judge Prince tried to make sense of the criminal behavior.

“You can see how dangerous this was. You could have blown yourself up or could have hurt somebody else,” the judge said, to which Doucette replied, “Not really.”

“Not really?” said Judge Prince.

Doucette said he and others involved were close by watching the mailboxes.

“If anybody was going to come around we would have told them to get out of there,” Doucette said.

“And then what were you going to do? Just sit there and watch the thing explode?” asked the judge.

“Yeah,” Doucette said.

Because Doucette had no prior criminal record, and because of his youthful age, the judge agreed to the joint recommendation for a two-month conditional sentence of house arrest and strict court-imposed conditions, followed by a 12-month probation period. Doucette was said to have a strong attachment to the workforce, but the question of drug and/or substance abuse and anger issues were raised during sentencing.

“It’s clear that the conduct definitely disrupted the community of Wedgeport and understandably, people feared what was going on,” said Judge Prince. “It’s fortunate nobody was hurt, including Mr. Doucette. When you play with explosives, sometimes things go terribly wrong.”

Aside from Doucette and Maio, there were also three young people arrested and charged. Those youth, who cannot be named, went through restorative justice where the outcome involved having them do community service work at the Wedgeport fire hall.