Charlottetown man pleads guilty after attempting jailbreak, taking hostage
Johnathan Joseph Trainor to stay in custody until next court date on March 5
A Charlottetown man has pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from a series of events that began with him not showing up to a court date, and ended with him taking a hostage at the provincial jail in a breakout attempt.
Johnathan Joseph Trainor, who was 29 at the time of the incident, appeared in Charlottetown provincial court Wednesday afternoon by video from jail, while his legal aid lawyer, Conor Mullin, was in the courtroom.
Eight guilty pleas were entered for crimes that took place between June and August of last year.
It all started in June when Trainor did not appear at a scheduled court date for breaking a condition of a previous probation, which led Judge Nancy Orr to issue a warrant for his arrest.
On July 22, police found Trainor sitting in a car on Linden Avenue in Charlottetown. When police tried to arrest him, Trainor fled first into a nearby house and then down the street, where he was eventually caught.
After arriving at the police station, Trainor escaped again, running down the street — barefoot this time — before they grabbed him in front of a laundromat on Eden Street.
He was taken to the provincial jail in Miltonvale Park, where he was ordered to stay while he waited to appear in court.
Agreed statement of facts
An agreed statement of facts read aloud Wednesday said that on the afternoon of Aug. 1, Trainor called his girlfriend and told her he was getting out of jail.
He was "almost through the window" and asked her to come pick him up.
A little more than an hour later, in an escape attempt captured on video, Trainor went into the jail's library, where an education worker was meeting with other inmates.
He asked her about the GED program, getting physically closer to her, and then put his arm around her.
"We're doing this, let's go," he said, according to court documents. "If you don't move I'm going to slit your throat. I have a piece of glass, I will slit your throat."
The glass was from a window he had broken in his cell.
The worker did not unlock the door, but reached for the panic button on her radio while the other inmates tried to talk Trainor down, eventually helping the educator escape.
Nine corrections officers came into the library and were able to get Trainor under control.
He eventually admitted to the escape attempt and said he was suffering from opioid withdrawal at the time.
What Trainor pleaded guilty to
On Wednesday, Trainor pleaded guilty to not showing up to court, resisting arrest, two counts of escaping custody, kidnapping, uttering threats, assault with a weapon and damaging property.
The Crown stayed a forcible confinement charge and several other charges for probation violations.
Mullin asked for an updated pre-sentence report for his client, which will look at his personal history and any other factors the judge needs to consider for sentencing.
Trainor will stay in custody while he awaits his next court date, scheduled for March 5. The video of the prison break attempt will also be shown then.
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