Court hears that alleged jail assault ringleader had strong influence on N.S. inmates

An image taken from video evidence presented in Nova Scotia Supreme Court showing inmates gathering in front of cell 8 in the North 3 unit of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, N.S. as an alleged assault took place. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Nova Scotia Courts

HALIFAX -

A man accused of leading a brutal Halifax jail assault in 2019 had allegedly boasted that he could set off a jailhouse riot with a single phone call, a court heard Tuesday.

Prosecutors are attempting to have Brian James Marriott designated a dangerous offender, and they are trying to convince a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge that he continues to pose a high risk of committing violent offences.

Tuesday's testimony was part of a sentencing hearing for Marriott's role in a Dec. 2, 2019, beating and stabbing of inmate Stephen Anderson at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, in Halifax. Marriott was convicted in 2021 of aggravated assault in the attack, which involved 14 other inmates, and his sentence will be determined by whether or not he is deemed a dangerous offender.

The court heard excerpts from a September 2019 report from a correctional officer who spoke to Marriott after he was sent to an isolation cell at another jail -- the Northeast Nova Correctional Facility. The officer said Marriott made clear he wasn't going to tolerate remaining in isolation and claimed influence over other offenders at the detention centre.

"Brian (Marriott) indicated he was upset and he would no longer accept this and would have to do something about it," said prosecutor Scott Morrison, reading aloud from the correctional officer's report.

"He indicated he would assault officers if needed and that he could make one phone call to cause a major disturbance in facility, and that was no problem for him to do."

Jeffrey Awalt, a training manager for Nova Scotia jails, testified on Tuesday that during an incident on Aug. 27, 2019, at the same jail, Marriott had to be subdued with large amounts of pepper spray after he was told he would be moved to an isolated cell.

Awalt read from a second report indicating that Marriott told correctional officers that he had never in his 13 years of incarceration agreed voluntarily to go to an isolation cell and that if he were forced to do so he would put up "a fight." The report's portrayal of Marriott was of an inmate that didn't easily submit to prison authorities and who could influence other detainees.

Awalt noted from the incident report that when officers arrived to move Marriott from a jail unit into an isolation cell on Aug. 27, 2019, other inmates had taped over the windows of the unit so that officers couldn't see inside.

Nathan Gorham, Marriott's lawyer, told Justice Jamie Campbell that many of the reports read in court relied on second-hand accounts, adding that he intended to challenge the validity of the hearsay evidence.

Gorham also told the court he's going to argue that Marriott doesn't pose a risk significantly greater than the risk posed by other inmates and that his client shouldn't be designated a dangerous offender.

During Awalt's cross-examination, Gorham said Marriott had received little explanation for why he was being moved into isolation and that the lack of information had upset him.

"The (Crown) argument is that Mr. Marriott can't be controlled," Gorham told the judge. "The counter to that is that Mr. Marriott is repeatedly put in segregation without proper justification and this is something that is tormenting (him).

"The delay in taking him (Marriott) out of there (segregation) informs the context of the way he reacted."

Awalt testified that the assault on Anderson by Marriott and other offenders on Dec. 2, 2019, had a major impact on the Central Nova Scotia Correctional facility. He said it caused staff to take sick leave, and forced days of lockdowns as searches were carried out.

That assault gained public notoriety in part because the inmates formed a wall around the cell where Anderson was being beaten and stabbed, preventing corrections officers from rescuing the inmate.

Campbell stated in an earlier hearing that Marriott has been involved with the criminal justice system from the age of 13 and that from the age of 20 has been incarcerated in various federal prisons.

The Crown has alleged that Marriott set off the 2019 Nova Scotia jailhouse violence, which involved 14 other inmates. Prosecutors applied to have him declared a dangerous offender on April 25.

The dangerous offender hearing is scheduled to run until Jan. 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2023.