Jay Bradley leaves the Ontario Courtroom of Justice in Napanee on November 1, 2024. Photograph by Michelle Dorey Forestell/Kingstonist.
WARNING: This text comprises language that readers might discover offensive.
Jay Nelson Bradley will serve three years and 4 months in a federal penitentiary for setting two devastating fires in Napanee and Stone Mills Township final yr.
Justice Geoffrey Griffin handed down the sentence on the Ontario Courtroom of Justice courtroom on Dundas Road in Napanee on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, only one week after listening to from victims impacted by Bradley’s crimes. All the sentence took Griffin slightly below half an hour to learn.
Gone had been the sobs of final week; Bradley watched stone-faced from the prisoner dock, intently staring on the decide as he learn out the sentence.
The Crown had submitted that the suitable sentence could be one to 5 years in a penitentiary minus the period of time spent in custody pre-sentencing, a DNA order, and restitution orders for the victims.
The defence submission was for three-and-a-half to 4 years in a penitentiary minus pre-sentence custody, the decide famous, explaining that that would depart a two-year sentence to be served. Either side agreed to the DNA order and the forfeiture of Bradley’s traditional automotive. Nonetheless, the defence urged {that a} “restitution order… would crush any hope of Mr. Bradley in the future and undermine his client’s prospects for rehabilitation, and should not be made.”
Different issues the decide stated he additionally thought of had been a “pre-sentence report” ordered on July 29, 2024; the occasions of the sentencing listening to, which befell on November 1, 2024; and the proof introduced within the agreed assertion of info.
“The seriousness of the offences and the significant harm caused by Mr. Bradley’s criminal conduct, not only to Carol McKinley and her family but also to the entire community of Napanee, became palpably manifest when over 10 community and victim impact statements were provided to the court,” Griffin famous, referring to the sentencing listening to.
Griffin recalled watching “with horror” a video submitted as proof which confirmed the sector because it burned, and questioning “how such an intense fire did not cause the residences across the street to go up in flames or the vehicles parked in their driveways… and with the fire taking place in the early morning hours when people would have been asleep in their homes.”
A second video, Griffin recalled, confirmed the McKinleys’ Chevrolet Equinox and connected storage engulfed in flames.
“Fortunately,” the decide stated, “Mr. McKinley woke up to the sound of a car door slamming and motion lights being activated in the home, so that he became aware of the imminent danger to himself and his wife. The vehicle fire was only 22 feet from where they both slept, with the detached garage only 33 feet away.”
“Bradley, at the sentencing hearing, acknowledged that the potential for loss of life as a result of the fires he set was real. And so he’s thankful nothing like that happened, as he does not know how he could live with himself if someone had been seriously hurt,” the decide continued.
Carol and George McKinley outdoors the Napanee Ontario Courtroom of Justice following the sentencing, the place Carol learn a proper assertion on behalf of the Lennox Agricultural Society. Photograph by Michelle Dorey Forestell/Kingstonist.
Decide Griffin went by the case legislation that issues sentencing, the aim of which is “to protect society and to contribute, along with crime prevention initiatives, to respect for the law, the maintenance of a just, peaceful, and safe society… A sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree and responsibility of the offender.”
The decide continued.
“Under cover of darkness, burning down a community arena situated in a residential area, followed by lighting a motor vehicle along with a detached garage on fire close to a house where people would be expected to be sleeping, are extremely serious offences,” he stated.
“Such morally blameworthy behaviour must attract significant consequence,” Griffin famous, saying that retribution is required in a judicial sentence.
To reveal Bradley’s culpability, the decide learn a passage from a phone dialog during which Bradley instructed Carol McKinley, whom he blamed for his enterprise failing and shutting, “There might be some kickback to this, right? Are you prepared? Fuck you and see you later, you fucking cunt.”
“Well,” Griffin continued, “the kickback” was evident.
Smoke fills the air across the Lennox Agricultural Memorial Neighborhood Centre within the early morning hours of October 23, 2023. Photograph by Logan Cadue/Kingstonist.
“The consequential harm is both grave and considerable: from the destruction of the arena used by a wide and varied segment of the community to the destruction of a vehicle and garage full of significant business-related documentation and personal property, which we learned was of great sentimental value,” the decide stated.
“Of course, the intentional harassment of Mrs. McKinley, designed to take a toll on her mental and emotional health, is a deliberate outcome of his criminal behaviour.”
The decide then summed up his ideas on Bradley’s culpability.
“Such evil and dangerous conduct done in furtherance of some twisted act of vengeance must be denounced and deterred,” Griffin concluded.
In contemplating sentencing, the decide stated, there have been some mitigating elements he needed to acknowledge.
Regardless of Bradley’s age and former profitable profession, “At the time of this criminal conduct, Mr. Bradley’s life was at a very low point: his marriage had fallen apart. He had debts that he could not satisfy, and his roller skating business, Disco Ball Events, was gone.”
Griffin learn from the pre-sentencing report from the Central East Correctional Centre, the place Bradley had been held since his arrest: “‘[Bradley’s] narcissism, impulsivity, problem-solving deficits, and untreated anger led to a catastrophic meltdown. [I believe] that based on his upbringing, morals, and beliefs, [Bradley] was retaliating because he felt he was wronged and failed to recognize the internal factors and behaviours controlling the situation at the time.’”
“I also consider the guilty plea,” he continued, stating that the plea had spared the McKinleys from having to testify at a preliminary listening to and in a trial.
“The stress and aggravation of having to be examined and cross-examined was avoided. As was the administration of Justice being saved: considerable expense in court days that could be used for other matters.”
Together with the responsible plea, the decide thought of Bradley’s “standing up in court and … apologizing… [that he] expressed remorse for his criminal behaviour and appeared to break down, expressing his deep regret for the harm he caused.”
The decide noticed, “I am unable to say with any level of certainty whether that remorse is genuine or whether his apologies were simply superficial.”
Nevertheless, Griffin went on, “I certainly accept that Mr. Bradley understands that what he did was terribly wrong and destructive and that he is absolutely genuine when he said he was incredibly thankful no one was physically injured due to his criminal acts.”
The hurt attributable to Bradley, the decide stated, “ranges from the very personal — Carol McKinley’s fear and her family’s loss of valuable property — to the more general, [like] not being able to play pickleball… to the more indeterminate.”
“The Agricultural Memorial Community Centre, or ‘the old arena’ as it was known in Napanee, was a place of cultural significance. Generations of local people assign importance to the arena. Whether it was where they learned to skate, played their first game of hockey, took figure skating lessons, met their first boyfriend or girlfriend, remember watching children or grandchildren look up into the stands as they scored a goal, enjoyed hot chocolate, played ball hockey, met one of their best lifelong friends, got into some trouble after the Boxing Day dance — and on and on,” Griffin emphasised.
“The point is that Mr. Bradley, by destroying that building, destroyed a place of considerable historical, social, and sentimental value. Mr. Bradley’s criminal conduct was not just an attack on a mere structure, but an attack on the Lennox Agricultural Society [LAS], with the targeting of board member Carol McKinley.”
Griffin described how, in her sufferer impression assertion, McKinley wrote, “’As soon as we heard the explosion, we knew that Jay Bradley was responsible. We stood watching our garage as it was in flames and the side of our home melting, when I received a phone call from about the community centre.’” He described how, given the timeframe, McKinley then made a mass name out to the guy members of the LAS warning them to be careful for their very own properties.
The decide stated that in McKinley’s phrases, “’the 12 days before the arrest of Jay Bradley [were] excruciating’” and that she was in fixed concern and dwelling in lock-down circumstances.
“The setting of the fires under the cover of darkness… in a residential area,” the decide stated, was “so dangerous that it boggles the mind.”
Bradley’s traditional automotive was captured on safety footage driving to and from the “old arena” on York Road in Napanee. Display captured picture.
Justice Griffin ordered the proceeds from the sale of Bradley’s automotive (Bradley’s solely capability to pay any restitution order) ought to be paid to Carol and George McKinley within the quantity of $8,500 and to the Napanee Pickleball Membership within the quantity of $2,482. He additionally invited the Navy League (Sea Cadets) and all who misplaced property within the fireplace to pursue civil litigation.
Bradley was ordered to not talk with Carol McKinley or any member of her household whereas he’s incarcerated, and to not possess any form of weapon for 10 years.
“Okay, Mr. Bradley. Good luck, sir. I wish you luck in the future,” stated the decide.
However after a second’s hesitation, Griffin went on to advise Bradley to benefit from any psychological well being program being provided whereas he’s in jail.
“I considered endorsing the warning committal for some sort of mental health treatment. I am concerned about your mental health, sir. Anyone who could do something this evil and destructive has something, in my mind, wrong with them.”
