Firearms charges laid against murder suspects
Devon Mark Hood, 26, and Erica Lea Ann Blyth, 40, accused of drug-trafficking crimes after homicide charge, now alleged to have had illegal sawed-off shotguns, rifles
A Newcastle Creek woman and a Fredericton man awaiting separate trials for a 2022 homicide now face firearms charges stemming from a drug-trafficking prosecution.
Erica Lea Ann Blyth, 40, of Wasson Road in Newcastle Creek, and Devon Mark Hill Hood, 26, of Fredericton, were charged jointly last month with possessing crystal meth, cocaine and hydromorphone (Dilaudid) for the purpose of trafficking, stemming from alleged events at Blyth’s home near Minto on June 21.
The pair appeared in Fredericton provincial court remotely Thursday from correctional institutions where they’re remanded - Blyth by phone the New Brunswick Women’s Correctional Centre in Miramichi, Hood by video from a federal prison in Quebec - to elect mode of trial and enter pleas to those counts, but the RCMP laid new, related charges.
Hood and Blyth are now also jointly charged with the following:
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 those three sawed-off shotguns, another shotgun and three rifles for a purpose dangerous to the public peace;
possessing non-restricted firearms (the three rifles and the shotgun) without a licence;
and storing those seven firearms improperly.
The weapons charges also allege June 21 events in Newcastle Creek.
Hood faces an additional count of possessing those firearms while prohibited from doing so by a court order.
Upon hearing Judge Mary Jane Richards read that final count, Hood broke into laughter and then ranted about the mounting charges.
“How are you going to charge me without reading me my rights?” he said.
“This is foolish. Every week, it’s new charges with you guys.”
Hood and Blyth are also both charged with first-degree murder in the Jan. 28, 2022, death of Minto resident Brandon Patrick Donelan, 27.
Blyth is charged jointly with Joshua John McIsaac, 33, formerly of Penniac, while Hood is charged on a separate information but jointly with Matthew David LeBlanc, 29, of Fredericton.
Fredericton lawyer Emily Cochrane - acting as an agent Thursday for Blyth’s defence counsel, T.J. Burke - said she’d been instructed to elect trial in the Court of King’s bench before a judge alone on the drug charges and presumably the related firearms counts as well.
However, she acknowledged the fact that Hood doesn’t have counsel yet on the drug and gun allegations, the court might be reluctant to enter elections of mode of trial when one of the defendants is unrepresented.
Richards said it would be a bit premature to forge ahead without dedicated counsel on hand to represent Hood’s interests. Furthermore, the judge said, it made sense to give the parties time to consider the new firearms charges and review any additional disclosure that might arise from them before settling on a mode of trial.
Hood is represented on the murder charge by Saint John defence lawyer Brian Munro.
Charlotte Cowley, a New Brunswick Legal aid staff lawyer acting as duty counsel Thursday who’d conferred with Hood before court convened, said Hood reports he applied twice for legal aid on the drug charges when he was still being held at Dorchester Penitentiary.
She said she’s going to look into that and see if Munro might be able to be assigned on the drug and gun allegations as well.
Richards set the June 21 charges over to Nov. 23 to ensure Hood has counsel assigned for those matters before dealing with election of mode of trial.
Members of the RCMP’s major crime unit and officers with other sections executed a search warrant at Blyth’s home in Newcastle Creek on June 21, and arrested her and Hood at the scene.
The Mounties charged Blyth with the Donelan murder the following, and Hood was returned to federal prison on a parole violation. He was charged with the murder Oct. 4.
The RCMP issued a news release this summer about the June 21 raid at Blyth’s home.
“During the search, police seized four non-restricted firearms and four prohibited firearms, all of which were unsafely stored,” it said.
“Police also seized 45,000 contraband cigarettes, as well as quantities of what are believed to be methamphetamine pills, shady 8 pills, hydromorphone pills, cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, unknown pills and drug-trafficking paraphernalia.”
McIsaac and Blyth’s jury trial on the murder charge is scheduled for the spring of 2025.
Hood and LeBlanc are due to appear again in provincial court next week to schedule their preliminary inquiry - a hearing to determine if there’s sufficient evidence to set the matter over for trial in the Court of King’s Bench.
However, it’s expected the Crown will file a preferred indictment in their murder case as it did with the Blyth/McIsaac matter. That procedure allows the prosecution to skip the preliminary-inquiry phase altogether.
Donelan’s body was found along a snowmobile trail in the Grand Lake area March 31, 2022, but he was reported as missing to police Jan. 30, 2022. The RCMP launched a major search effort, on the ground and from the air at the time but it came up empty.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.