CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A P.E.I. man who escaped from jail after climbing out a window he and his co-accused broke inside a cell will be back in court next week for sentencing.
Brandon Jeffrey Quinn, 22, appeared before Justice James Gormley in P.E.I. Supreme Court in Charlottetown on Tuesday by video from jail where he remains in custody.
During his court appearance, Quinn pleaded guilty to one count of prison breach.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Nathan Beck told the court that on April 12, the Provincial Correctional Centre reported to the RCMP that Quinn and a co-accused were at large after escaping from the jail.
Beck said phone records from the jail revealed the two had been planning their escape for a while.
The court heard those records showed that the day before the escape, Quinn contacted a woman who was on his list of people he was allowed to call.
That woman gave the phone to one of Quinn’s friends and plans were made for him to drive to the jail where he would pick up the two escapees.
Beck said Quinn contacted the woman again to confirm the plan, but it was later called off.
The court heard Quinn’s co-accused called his girlfriend the next day and made plans for her to pick them up at the jail.
Some time after 9:40 p.m., the escapees managed to break a window in Quinn’s co-accused’s cell, Beck said.
They then escaped through the window.
Beck said no one showed up to get the men so they fled on foot into nearby woods before ending up in a swamp and turning around to go in another direction.
Speaking from the jail over the video, Quinn disputed that version of events, saying the men knew there wasn’t going to be someone there to pick them up.
Beck said a cell check at 11 p.m. found the two men missing, which led to a police search that included the use of a drone and a police dog.
The court heard the police received several tips about the men’s locations and both were arrested at different locations.
Quinn was at a home on Brighton Road in Charlottetown where his girlfriend answered the door and told police he was upstairs.
Beck told the court Quinn gave a statement to police in which he said he escaped because he was annoyed and fed up with the restrictions placed on him at the jail, including what were then new protocols because of COVID-19.
The court heard Quinn also told police he was mad because he wasn’t let out on a temporary absence when some other inmates were due to the pandemic.
Quinn had 3.5 months left to serve on his previous sentence at the time.
Before the matter was adjourned Wednesday, Beck told the court he planned to recommend a sentence in the range of 14-18 months in custody.
Defence lawyer Conor Mullin told the court he planned to recommend a much lower sentence.
Gormley adjourned the matter until Oct. 27.
Quinn’s co-accused has yet to enter a plea on any charges connected to the escape.
