A Cole Harbour man with a history of committing violent offences while under the influence of alcohol is back behind bars after being charged with impaired driving.
Ashton Thomas MacNeil, 28, was arrested Nov. 17 after police allegedly found him sitting behind the wheel of a car parked on Grafton Street in downtown Halifax with the seat reclined and the keys to the vehicle in his possession.
After providing breath samples, MacNeil was charged with impaired driving and having a blood alcohol reading above .08.
He got out of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary last January on statutory release after serving twothirds of his prison time. One of his release conditions prohibited him from consuming alcohol or drugs. His statutory release
was suspended for 90 days after his Nov. 17 arrest.
MacNeil appeared in Halifax provincial court Monday with lawyer Sarah White. The Crown consented to MacNeil’s release on an undertaking on the drunk driving charges, but he will remain in custody until his statutory release is reinstated.
The case is due back in court in January.
In 2013, MacNeil was sentenced to six years in prison after he was found guilty of assaulting three men in two incidents involving alcohol.
In the first of those incidents, MacNeil knocked down two young men from Dartmouth with single punches on Sackville Street in Halifax in August 2011. The men, both 19, were taken to hospital with serious head injuries.
MacNeil was found guilty of aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm and
was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years’ probation.
While out on bail on those charges, MacNeil struck a man in the face with a liquor glass during an altercation at a bar in Cole Harbour in May 2012. He was found guilty of aggravated assault and breaching bail and received four years to be served consecutively to the other sentence.
MacNeil has had other brushes with the law after drinking.
In May 2010, he received a conditional discharge and was ordered to perform 70 hours of community service for punching two men in downtown Halifax in 2008.
And in June 2011, MacNeil was arrested while drunk outside a casino in Fort McMurray, Alta. He pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and causing a disturbance, and received a fine.
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STEVE BRUCE -THE CHRONICLE HERALD
