Hammer attacker sent back to prison

A man who attacked a Good Samaritan with a hammer so forcefully it became lodged in his head has been sent back to prison for running away from his halfway house.

Jonathan Malachai Flett, who’s in his early 20s, was sentenced to seven years in prison in March 2023 for the aggravated assault outside the beer vendor at the Maryland Hotel, at 690 Notre Dame Ave. in September 2020.

Flett was to serve three years, seven months and two days of his prison term, considering time served pre-trial.

On May 1, he left prison on statutory release — automatically granted to most federal inmates at two-thirds of their sentence — and went to live at a halfway house. He was ordered to abstain from intoxicants, follow a substance abuse and emotional management treatment plan and report back nightly, among other conditions.

He went on the lam a short time later, a recent Parole Board of Canada decision said. He received additional prison time after he was picked up by police.

“You remain assessed as a high-risk/high-needs offender who has historically struggled with meeting community supervision requirements,” wrote officials in their Oct. 30 decision.

“The board finds that you will, by reoffending, present an undue risk to society.”

Parole officials formally revoked his statutory release.

“You remain assessed as a high-risk/high-needs offender who has historically struggled with meeting community supervision requirements.”

About a month after he was let out, Flett stepped out for a cigarette from his halfway house — the address is redacted from the decision — but did not return.

Once staff discovered he had slipped away, a warrant was issued. Flett called back and said he had fallen asleep at his foster dad’s house and came back to the facility.

Federal officials ordered him to stay at the halfway house until he met with his parole officer, but Flett ran away. A warrant for his arrest was issued on May 31.

Flett contacted his parole officer numerous times by phone or text message, and was told to turn himself in, but it wasn’t until Aug. 21 that police, acting on a tip, arrested him.

Flett was convicted of escaping the halfway house in September and was given a four-month sentence on top of his sentence for aggravated assault.

He told parole officials in September his mother and sister had been evacuated from their community owing to forest fires. He said he disobeyed the order to return to the halfway house because they had asked him for help.

“You shared that your family had never really maintained contact with you before and said that when they asked for your help, you felt needed and wanted,” wrote parole officials.

“You took full responsibility for your poor actions leading up to absconding and acknowledged that your thinking process at the time was impulsive.”

Flett told officials he stayed with a friend while he was at large and added he thinks having close contact with a First Nations elder would help him succeed upon his next release.

He claimed he got overwhelmed and frustrated and ran off rather than ask for assistance.

Flett’s next statutory release date is July 2026. He will again be subject to conditions and is expected to reside at a halfway house.

“The board finds that you will, by reoffending, present an undue risk to society.”

In the 2020 attack, the victim told court he saw a group of men, including Flett, “messing around” with a “younger kid” outside the vendor, and told them to knock it off.

The group got in the victim’s face and soon a fight began, as several of the men, including one with a retractable baton, hit the victim.

Flett, who briefly left the scene to obtain a drywall hammer, struck the victim nine times with the tool. The attack was caught on surveillance tape.

The victim suffered a broken jaw, shattered nose and injuries to his skull, and spent three weeks in hospital.

He has permanent cognitive dysfunction, memory impairment, headaches and other neurological symptoms, the board said in the recent decision.

Flett was acquitted of attempted murder and instead pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Parole officials said the sentencing judge described the attack as “unjustified.”

“Despite the victim being beaten senseless, you still left the scene to get a hammer which you (proceeded) to use,” wrote parole officials.

Flett has a detailed criminal record that prompted his home First Nation to ban him when he was a teen.

He was once in a gang, but he was beaten and kicked out when other gangsters found out he had been charged with sex offences, which were later stayed.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca