Break-in during flood brings 18-month jail sentence

One of the men who broke into a flooded Maugerville last spring home has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Travis Lloyd Hunt was found guilty in October of breaking into the home of Markus Harvey during the worst flooding of the St. John River in recent memory.

He and two other men, Brandon Drew Hatchard and Chance Arthur Leslie, used a canoe to get to the house surrounded by floodwater in the community east of Fredericton.

They broke in, opened cupboard doors and moved empty medicine bottles but were chased off by the homeowner without stealing anything.

The court was previously told the men had bandanas concealing their faces, bolt cutters, flashlights and empty bags with them when they were caught in a whirlpool early on May 6 and arrested.

When delivering Hunt's guilty verdict on the break and enter charge, Judge Pierre Dubé said he found it difficult to believe that three men would be paddling in floodwater for any reason but a nefarious one.

Hunt gets credit for the time already spent in custody and will serve seven months and five days.

He will be on supervised probation for two years after he's released.

Leslie was sentenced to 15 months in jail, and Hatchard will be sentenced Dec. 18.