None of the four men who conducted a vigilante-style attack on a reputed Grand Manan, N.B., drug house last summer is going to jail.
The four men were convicted of various weapons and arson offences last month, after a lengthy jury trial that exposed the seamier side of the idyllic Bay of Fundy island, known more for tourism than crime.
Five Grand Manan men were originally charged in connection with the attack, but four were convicted. Justice Hugh McLellan sentenced them in St. Andrews court on Monday.
Carter Foster, who was convicted of unsafe storage of a weapon, will serve six months probation. If he keeps the peace during the next six months, he won't have a criminal record.
Matthew Lambert received six months of house arrest for a weapons charge related to a flare gun.
Michael Small and Lloyd Bainbridge, both convicted of arson, will serve one year of house arrest and have each been ordered to pay $5,000 restitution to the victim of the riot, Ronald Ross.
McLellan reminded the men that had anyone died or been seriously injured in the riot, they would be facing much stiffer sentences, including years of federal jail time.
The men claim they gathered outside the Ross home one night last July in self-defence, believing it was full of dangerous people who represented a threat to their lives.
Gunshots were fired from both sides, fist fights broke out and fires burned around Ross's home. Eventually, the Ross home burned to the ground while Grand Manan residents formed a human chain blocking firefighters from dousing the flames.
The island's three RCMP officers could only watch the melee, and then drag Ross and some of his friends away from the crowd, some of whom succeeded in landing kicks and punches.
Defence lawyer David Lutz portrayed Ross as a menacing drug dealer who harboured violent people in his home. Ross, who has never been charged with selling drugs but admitted in court to smoking crack cocaine, says people on the island didn't like him.
Crown Prosecutor Jim McAvity did not oppose the lack of jail time for the men.
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