Jail time for driver who crashed into former high school

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A Moncton judge sentenced a troubled man Friday to 10 months in jail, with the hope he may be able to get some help moving forward.

Gabriel Paul Gaudet, 43, of no fixed address, told the judge from the prisoner’s dock that he’s spoken to a counsellor while in jail over the last few months and is hoping to be connected to long-term mental health help once released.

Gaudet told the judge he thinks he’s in a better place than he was when he committed his crimes over the last year.

The offender pleaded guilty in late November to charges stemming from several different incidents, many coming from heavy drug use and mental distress, court heard. Police repeatedly were called to deal with Gaudet, who at least once tried to goad them into shooting him.

“He was thinking of killing himself and he was enticing the cops to try to help him complete that,” defence lawyer Dustin Caissie told the court. “It was a cry for help.”

The offender has been in jail for several months and has two and a half months of his sentence left to serve. He’s also banned from driving for 18 months.

Prosecutor Denis Sawyer told the court Gaudet’s first offences happened the night of New Year’s Eve, 2022. The offender was driving impaired and crashed a car into the wall of the old Moncton High School at Mountain Road and Church Street. Gaudet got out and ran but a witness tackled him and held him for police.

He wouldn’t provide a breath sample but admitted he had consumed alcohol and narcotics.

Court heard that on Aug. 21, 2023, Gaudet was running in and out of traffic on Mountain Road, near Connaught Avenue, when he jumped on top of a pickup truck and waved a knife at the driver.

Sawyer said Gaudet “appeared to be in a delirium,” didn’t even know his own name and was asking police to shoot him. Officers negotiated with him for two hours and finally had to take him down with pepper spray and 40-mm foam rounds, which are less-lethal ammo designed to bring people under control. He was arrested and police learned he had taken meth and pill. The truck’s roof damaged, court heard.

The very next day, Gaudet was causing trouble again, according to the prosecutor, running in and out of traffic on Mountain Road near Teakwood Way. Police arrived and when Gaudet saw them he brandished a machete at them and ran back into traffic waving it around. Sawyer said he again had to be taken down again by foam rounds.

In June, the offender assaulted his domestic partner and damaged her property, court heard.

While Caissie said his client has contended with mental health issues over the years, Gaudet was sent to the psychiatric hospital in Campbellton for an assessment after his arrest and not found to be suffering from a mental disorder that would render him not criminally responsible for his actions.