Drug, firearms suspects opt for King’s Bench trial
First-degree murder defendants Erica Lea Ann Blyth, 40, and Devon Mark Hill Hood, 26, decide they want trafficking, weapons charges to be dealt with at higher level of court
A Newcastle Creek woman and a Fredericton man facing serious drug-trafficking and firearms charges opted Thursday to have their trial at a superior level of court.
Erica Lea Ann Blyth, 40, of Wasson Road in Newcastle Creek near Minto, and Devon Mark Hill Hood, 26, of Veterans Drive in Fredericton, appeared in Fredericton provincial court by telephone from custodial facilities Thursday to answer to joint charges involving hard drugs and weapons.
They’re accused of June 21 counts of possessing crystal meth, cocaine and hydromorphone (Dilaudid) for the purpose of trafficking; possessing a loaded, prohibited firearm (a sawed-off shotgun) without a licence or authorization; possessing unloaded prohibited firearms (two other sawed-off shotguns) with readily accessible ammunition; possessing seven firearms for a purpose dangerous to the public peace; possessing non-restricted firearms without a licence; and storing those seven firearms improperly.
Fredericton lawyer Emily Cochrane appeared in court Thursday as an agent for T.J. Burke, Blyth’s defence counsel, and Brian Munro, who represents Hood.
She said both defendants were electing to be tried in the Court of King’s Bench by judge alone, without a jury, on those drug and firearms allegations.
Judge Scott Brittain referred the files to the Court of King’s Bench for its Feb. 1 motions day to schedule the pair’s trial, and he remanded them again.
Hood also faces a solo charge of possessing firearms in violation of a court-ordered prohibition against doing so, also alleged to have occurred June 21.
Cochrane said she hadn’t received instructions from Munro on that count, so Brittain set it over to Jan. 4 for election of mode of trial.
The drug and weapons charges arose after the RCMP executed a search warrant June 21 at Blyth’s home in Newcastle Creek, where the two defendants were arrested.
But initially, when Blyth was brought to court following her arrest, she was charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 28, 2022, death of Brandon Patrick Donelan.
Hood was charged in early October with the same murder.
Blyth’s murder case was revised to charge her jointly with Joshua John McIsaac, 33, formerly of Penniac. When the murder count was laid against Hood this fall, he charged jointly with a fourth suspect, Matthew David LeBlanc, 29, also of Fredericton.
Blyth and McIsaac’s jury trial on the murder charge is scheduled for spring 2025.
Hood and LeBlanc are scheduled to go through a preliminary inquiry on the murder allegation April 22-26, 2024.
Such proceedings are held in provincial court to determine if there’s sufficient evidence to set more serious cases over for trial at the higher level of court.
However, in the Blyth/McIsaac murder prosecution, the Crown filed a preferred indictment, allowing the case to skip the preliminary phase and proceed directly to trial. It’s expected the same tactic will be taken with the Hood/LeBlanc case as well.
Donelan, 27, was reported as missing to the RCMP on Jan. 30, 2022, but an extensive search on the ground and from the air didn’t yield any results in the investigation at first.
However, officers found his body weeks later along a snowmobile trail in the Grand Lake area March 31, 2022.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.