The second of two men charged with two violent and random home invasions in St. John’s has been sentenced to six-and-half years in prison.
Thirty-four-year-old Jonathon Hurley and 33-year-old Justin Haynes were arrested a day after the back-to-back break-ins in September of 2022.
Haynes has already been sentenced to five years for the crimes, which saw the pair break into two randomly chosen homes, beating and robbing the people inside.
On Beaumont Street, Hurley assaulted a woman and stabbed her partner, telling him he would die before stealing their car. They then headed to Maunder’s Lane in the east end, where they broke into another home and roughed up and robbed a couple in their 80s.
(Jonathon Hurley and Justin Haynes are shown in court after being arrested last fall.)
Justice Peter O’Flaherty said the incidents were nothing short of shocking, with the Crown stating “all of a sudden crime came barging through the front door.”
But they also noted Hurley’s guilty plea part way through his trial, saying it saved the court time, and the victims the ordeal of having to testify.
In written statements, they told of the “baseline fear” they now live with, as well as the financial impacts of losing their car, and lost work due to injuries suffered in the attacks.
Hurley did apologize to the victims this morning, saying he was on a “drug bender” fuelled by crack cocaine at the time, but he pledged to clean up his act, adding he’s now older and wiser.
With credit for time already served, he has just over three years left in his sentence.
