By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
Jermaine Shawn Middleton stood in a courtroom in Yarmouth on Monday, April 26 and told a judge he knows he has brought shame to his family and the community.
And while he said he was sorry for his actions, he also acknowledged there wasn’t much he could say to comfort the family of a man who was murdered last summer, a man who Middleton referred to as a friend.
Not long afterwards, Middleton was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary on a charge of accessory to murder after the fact stemming from the July 2009 death of Yarmouth resident Neil Joseph Blades Jr.
Middleton had pleaded guilty to the accessory charge on March 4, the same day a charge of first-degree murder against him was dropped.
“I know there’s a lot of questions people have that they want to get answered,” Middleton said when he addressed the court.
For now, however, the facts of the case that have been presented to the court are banned from publication – both from Middleton’s April 26 sentencing, and also that of Alicia Marie Anderson who in February was sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest after pleading guilty to accessory to murder after the fact.
The facts of the case cannot be reported by the media to ensure that Ian Matthew Huskins receives a fair trial and that potential jurors have not formed a conclusion prior to trial. Huskins stands accused of killing Blades and faces a count of first-degree murder, although the judge reminded the court that he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Huskins appears in court next week. His preliminary inquiry in provincial court is set for May 6 and 7. The evidence presented during that hearing will also be banned from publication.
The sentence Middleton received was a joint recommendation by the Crown and defence and takes into consideration the amount of time Middleton has been in custody on remand since his arrest last July. Although he’s been in custody nine months, the court credited him for 18 months.
Had the court not done that, Crown Attorney Bob Morrison had asked the court to impose a sentence of four to five years.
With a charge of accessory to murder after the fact, the maximum penalty is life in prison, but there is no minimum penalty. Supreme Court Justice Patrick Duncan noted that Middleton’s criminal record was problematic, but he added that the sentence was aimed more at public deterrence rather than the personal rehabilitation of Middleton. In fact he told Middleton that he hoped that when he is released from prison he can be a more productive member of society.
The sentencing hearing was not without its emotional moments, specifically when the mother, father and brother of Blades read victim impact statements. They spoke of the emotions they’ve experienced – grief, confusion, a profound sense of loss, anger and betrayal – and often spoke directly to Middleton, as opposed to directing their comments to the judge.
Earlier in the court proceeding, which lasted about two hours, people sat in silence as the Crown read the facts of the offence inside a room where there are rarely any winners because people have lost so much – some people lose their freedom, some people lose their faith in the justice system, and some people have lost their loved ones.
During Monday’s proceeding mothers inside the courtroom shed tears for the living, and for the dead.
Justice Duncan also noted that no matter what happened during Middleton’s sentencing, it was not going to change the ultimate fact of the case.
“There’s nothing that I can do or this court can do to replace the loss, that is the harsh realities of the justice system that we cannot repair injuries, we cannot, through the sentencing process, bring back people who are not in this world,” he said.
In addition to his prison sentence, the court imposed a 10-year firearm prohibition against Middleton to start after he is released from jail and the court also ordered that a DNA sample be collected from him for the national database.
