TRURO - Participation in a home invasion early last year that left an elderly man battered and bruised has resulted in a two-year prison sentence for a Salmon River man.
Alexander Francis Hanlon, 22, was recently sentenced to two years in prison following the acceptance of a joint sentencing recommendation in Nova Scotia Supreme Court by Justice Nick Scaravelli.
The judge noted in his decision that while three year's imprisonment is the norm for such a conviction, after reviewing the particulars of the case he was satisfied that the recommendation was a proper one.
The case dates to February of 2009 when College Road resident Gordon Moore was assaulted with a metal pipe in the early morning hours by Hanlon and another man who came knocking on his door.
Moore's residence was known to the men as a "location of a bootlegging operation or business," Scaravelli said, a factor the defence counsel used as a bargaining tool for a lesser sentence than the norm.
"I note the guilty plea followed what our Court of Appeal has termed a true plea bargaining," Scaravelli said. "That is what is known as a negotiated plea in exchange for leniency."
Hanlon, who pled guilty to aggravated assault and theft, was 21 at the time and although he had a "minor" criminal record prior to sentencing, he had not been previously incarcerated.
What also helped Hanlon's case, Scaravelli said, was that his guilty plea led to a guilty plea from the co-accused, Brian James Arsenault.
Arsenault, who did have a prior criminal record, previously received a five-year prison term for his part in the offence.
