A 25-year-old man who broke into his victim’s house, pulled him out of bed and beat him with a baseball bat will spend three years in prison after he was sentenced Monday.
Matthew Donald Bradley appeared before Justice Gordon Campbell in P.E.I. Supreme Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and home invasion.
In reading the agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Lisa Goulden told the court that on June 26, Bradley’s victim was at his home with Bradley’s sister and Bradley’s girlfriend.
An argument ensued between the victim and his girlfriend over text messages he sent from a cellphone, after which the two women left the house and drove away.
Bradley’s girlfriend later told Bradley the victim tried to run them off the road and tried to “get on her” while they were at his house.
Bradley, who was drunk at the time, was in Charlottetown but drove to his mother’s house to pick up his brother and made another stop at his father’s house.
He also picked up an aluminum baseball bat along the way.
Bradley then drove to the victim’s home on Selkirk Road in Kings County where he tried to kick in the front door.
When that didn’t work, he went around to a patio door, smashed it and went inside.
Goulden said Bradley pulled the victim out of bed, threatened him and beat him with the bat.
Bradley’s attack left the victim with a fractured wrist, two fractured fingers, a broken toe, abdominal trauma, cuts on the side of his forehead and serious bruising.
Goulden said the victim still has marks from the bat on his back.
When Bradley returned to one of his parents’ homes, he was covered in blood and threw the bat behind the house.
Police were called to the scene at 4:10 a.m. and, when they arrived, they found the victim conscious with welts on his back and shoulders.
They also found the broken patio door along with blood and fecal matter throughout the house.
Bradley said he turned himself in a few hours later.
Goulden said Bradley caused almost $1,200 in damage to the victim’s home and in total cost him more than $8,000, including lost wages.
The patio door still isn’t fixed and is covered in plastic because Bradley can’t afford to pay for it.
Goulden also read from parts of a victim impact statement, which said the victim still suffers from pain in his hand and it has affected his ability to work.
He also has been depressed since the assault and said he would like to see Bradley hurt as much as Bradley hurt him.
In a pre-sentence report, Bradley said he attacked the victim because he believed his sister and girlfriend were in danger, but Goulden didn’t think
it was a valid argument.
Goulden said the victim wasn’t pursuing the women when Bradley left Charlottetown and she called the beating “vigilante justice.”
She also said Bradley wasn’t so drunk he couldn’t drive or follow directions to the victim’s house.
Goulden recommended a sentence of three or four years in prison, along with a weapons prohibition and a DNA sample for the national databank.
Defence lawyer Mitchell MacLeod said Bradley agreed with most of the facts in the case, but was so drunk he told his father he didn’t know what happened.
MacLeod said Bradley thought the victim had been reclining in a chair when he broke in.
While he agreed it was a serious assault, MacLeod said there was no way to explain it because everyone involved in the pre-sentence report said it was out of character for Bradley.
“It’s akin to temporary insanity, I guess,” MacLeod said.
He also said Bradley sought counselling on his own, is remorseful and there is no indication he is a danger to society.
Bradley sat with his head down and shoulders slumped as Campbell gave his reasons for the sentence and said aggravated assault and home invasion are both very serious crimes.
“Neither crime taken alone is treated lightly,” he said.
Campbell agreed there was a positive pre-sentence report, but it was an unprovoked attack he described as brutal and vicious.
Tearful supporters sobbed as Campbell sentenced Bradley to two years less a day for the aggravated assault and three years for the home invasion, to be served concurrently.
The maximum penalty for aggravated assault is 14 years and for a home invasion is life in prison.
Campbell ordered the weapons prohibition, the DNA sample and more than $8,000 in restitution.
