Homeless man admits to shelter threat
Joshua Daniel Grant Burden, 50, serving prison term for arson at sporting-goods store
An unhoused man scheduled for trial Friday for uttering threats more than a year ago opted instead to admit to some of the charges against him.
Joshua Daniel Grant Burden, 50, of no fixed address, was sentenced last month to 2½ years in prison for an Oct. 29, 2024, arson offence that saw MacTavish’s Source for Sports on Queen Street so ravaged by the blaze that the building was later torn down.
Burden had pleaded guilty to that crime, but he had other outstanding charges that preceded the fire for which he was scheduled to stand trial, so he was back in Fredericton provincial court in person and in custody for that proceeding Friday.
He’d previously pleaded not guilty to Oct. 12, 2024 counts of uttering threats to Nicolas De L’Eveille to cause him death and/or bodily harm and breaching a probation order in the process; and Oct. 24, 2024, charges of uttering threats to Fredericton police Const. Ryan Preston to cause him death and/or bodily harm and again breaching his probation.
