Coroner investigating death of man whose charge was stayed in Fredericton homicide

A man whose murder charge was stayed last year was recently found dead at a Saint John halfway house under suspicious circumstances, according to a lawyer representing another man in a related case.

Brian Munro made the bombshell revelation about Travis James Snowsell in court Friday as part of his efforts to expedite the chance Devon Mark Hill Hood has for statutory release, over fears that he could be the next one to wind up dead.

"Mr. Hood's had a pretty rough go of it since the charges of murder were stayed," said Munro, arguing before Justice E. Thomas Christie at the Burton courthouse.

"I think you heard … about the stabbings in jail. He's been attacked a lot. This has been a reoccurring situation."

Hood, 28, is one of five people whose murder charges involving two victims were stayed by the Crown following an "evidentiary issue" that arose because of an unknown mistake by the Fredericton Police Force.

Hood, along with Matthew David LeBlanc, were jointly charged with the murder of Brandon Donelan, whose body was found in the Chipman area, about 75 kilometres northeast of Fredericton, in March 2022.

Joshua McIsaac and Erica Blyth were jointly charged with the same murder, and those two cases had been investigated by the RCMP.

McIsaac was also charged alongside Snowsell with the murder of Corey Markey, who was shot and killed in Fredericton in December 2021.

Hood appeared in court Friday for sentencing on two firearms charges he'd pleaded guilty to in September 2024.

Munro and Crown prosecutor Geoffrey Hutchin agreed Hood should be sentenced to three years in prison, but the two disagreed on how much of that sentence should be credited to Hood for time he's already spent behind bars on remand.

Hutchin argued Hood's sentence should be cut by 1½ days for each day spent on remand, with a total remand credit of 755 days of his 1,095-day sentence.

Munro meanwhile argued for a more generous two-day credit for each one spent on remand, which adds up to a 939-day credit.

In arguing why, Munro told Christie that a more generous remand credit might speed up the time it takes Hood to get out of prison on statutory release.

He said since his murder charge was stayed, other inmates have assumed Hood got off on the charge because he was "a rat," and they have targeted him with repeated attacks, including incidents where he was stabbed in the torso and had both his hands broken.