Melvin and Marriott families are feuding,some of these players made money and a name for themselves — together.Since 1968, Terrance Cyril Marriott (a.k.a. Terry Sr.) has racked up a total of 32 years, nine months and 26 days of federal time for drugs and other offences. But he’s also beaten the rap a number of times.The patriarch of the Melvin family, James Edwin Melvin (a.k.a. Jimmy Sr.), 48, has been sentenced to a total of 22 and three months of federal time and is still on parole. He narrowly escaped injury Nov. 17 when shots were fired at him outside a Spryfield pizza joint.
Here’s a brief history of these two notorious families:•April 25, 1988: Arnold (Smiley) Joseph Bailey is fatally shot on a Halifax street in what police believe was a drug-related shooting. Police later charged Spryfield drug dealer Terry Marriott Sr. with murder, but he was acquitted in June 1991.•October 1991: Police seized about 3.5 tonnes of hash from a truck on Highway 103 near Chester. It’s believed the drugs had been offloaded from a Panamanian vessel. Jimmy Melvin Sr., then of Spryfield, was among the 10 charged. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1994 for his part in the operation. •November 1992: A Spanish vessel led a U.S. Coast Guard vessel on a 19-hour chase through rough seas before sinking early the next day off the coast of Newfoundland, taking with it an estimated three tonnes of cocaine. Unaware of what had happened, Jimmy Melvin Sr. and a Crown witness spent two days trying to get out to the mother ship to offload the drugs for the Hells Angels. Mr. Melvin, described at sentencing as "the second in command, was among five Nova Scotians charged in the crime. He was sentenced in 1997 to 5 1/2 years for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.•Nov. 20, 1998: Richard Joseph (Ricky) Marriott, 32, was shot in his house, along with his girlfriend, Gail Stone. Ricky, who used a wheelchair and was Terry Marriott Sr.’s brother, was facing three drug charges of his own. He died at the scene, and Ms. Stone died in hospital four days later. In August 2000, Ricky’s brother William Ralph (Billy) Marriott, 38, hanged himself in a Halifax jail cell. Billy faced trial for first-degree murder in the killing of former Hells Angels associate William St. Clair Wendelborg, and Billy’s girlfriend, Wanda Lynn Campbell, was later found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. Ms. Campbell’s trial was told that Terry Marriott Sr. thought Billy murdered Ricky, although the rest of the family might not agree.•1999: Operation Crack Pot, a joint-forces investigation that targeted street-level drug dealers, a Halifax corner store and eight crack houses. Undercover police bought drugs 60 times during the operation. Terry Marriott Sr. and Terry Marriott Jr. were among the 40 people charged. Terry Marriott Sr. served four years for trafficking and his son got 4 1/2 years for possession. (Since December 1992, Terry Jr. has been sentenced to over 7 1/2 years of federal time. At one point, the National Parole Board had ordered Terry Jr. to stay away from his father because of his lengthy criminal history)•December 2001: Police raided the now-defunct Halifax chapter of the Hells Angels. Members and associates, including Jimmy Melvin Sr., are among those arrested and charged with drug offences. The name of Terry Marriott Sr. is found in exhibits seized by cops, but no explanation is given at the time. Jimmy Melvin Sr. is sentenced to another six years and three months for selling hash.•May to June 2002: An undercover police investigation dubbed Operation Midway swept up 81 people including many Marriott and Melvin family associates. The raids also hit homes and businesses owned by some family members and associates. Bruce Alan Jackson, a drug dealer turned informant, detailed in court how the second generation of Melvins and Marriotts ran a drug ring in Halifax. Mr. Jackson was the manager of a Herring Cove Road crack shop in a ring operated by one of Terry Marriott Sr.’s sons, Brian James Bremner (a.k.a. B.J. Marriott); the young man’s cousin, Gary (Boo) Boudreau and longtime friend James Bernard Melvin (a.k.a. Jimmy Melvin Jr.).
Jimmy Jr., who was already in jail when the arrests were made, was later sentenced to three years for attempting to have someone smuggle drugs to him in prison as part of Operation Midway. That was to be served on top of a two-year term he received in December 2002 for possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in May 2001. His sentence ended on May 17, 2006, but he had been in custody in relation to other charges until he was ordered released a month ago, on Nov. 14.
Mr. Boudreau received six years and six months for drug and weapons offences. While it may have been his first federal sentence, he told a National Parole Board panel last year that he’d been selling drugs since he was 13 and became a high-level dealer in 2000. Now 32, Mr. Boudreau, who co-owned a Herring Cove Road tanning salon that was firebombed in 2006, has kept himself out of jail since his release last year.B.J. Marriott, who was also in jail when the investigation was underway, was eventually convicted and sentenced to a total of six years for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Dartmouth between June 17 and June 20, 2002 and possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at Springhill Institution between May 27 to May 31, 2002. The drugs headed for the Springhill prison were supposed to go to Wayne James, a Halifax man serving time for a Hells Angels-related murder. Although B.J. Marriott didn’t actually handle the drugs, the judge ruled that he had control of the prison packages through the people that did his bidding. His mother, Dawn Bremner, and his uncle, Teddy Bremner, each received 18-month conditional sentences for their part in the operation. Jimmy Jr.’s then-girlfriend, Jennifer Purcell and Jimmy Jr.’s mother, Debbie Melvin, received two years and 12 months, respectively, while charges against Mr. Boudreau’s wife and his grandmother were dismissed. In the end, 66 people were convicted for varying roles in the drug ring, and some on multiple charges. Neither Jimmy Sr. nor Terry Sr. was among those arrested.
Now 26, B.J. Marriott is in prison in the Prairie region where he is serving 16 years and four months for manslaughter; two counts of assault with a weapon; assault causing bodily harm; two counts of possessing a dangerous weapon; and possessing property obtained by criminal activity; and the drug charges. He was eligible for day parole on Nov. 28, but did not apply. He also decided to postpone an upcoming parole board hearing scheduled for next May. Instead, the board is expected to hear his case in May 2011.•Oct. 25, 2002: At about 6 a.m., at least one Molotov cocktail and five bullets hit 28 Sylvia Ave., which is owned by Jimmy Melvin Sr. An hour earlier, two bullets went through a kitchen window of a nearby home on Emerald Crescent. Wayne Douglas Robinson, a cousin of Terry Marriott Jr. is later arrested in the firebombing. In the following years, houses, apartment buildings or businesses were either shot at or firebombed on Arvida Avenue, Herring Cove Road, Hartlen Avenue and Old Sambro Road. •July 7 and Sept. 3, 2004: On these two evenings, shots were fired outside 490 Herring Cove Rd. and Terry Marriott Jr. was hit both times. He was hit in the armpit and hip the first time, with witnesses saying four shots came from a green van. In September, police arrived at the house after the victim left for hospital. He tells investigators the shooting was an accident. His uncle, James Cameron, is the listed owner of the property.•June 20, 2006: Wayne Nicholas (Chop) Marriott, 21, was shot dead at about 10:50 p.m., moments after driving up to the Beechville home he was renting. The man he was with, Jeremy Alvin Leblanc, then aged 24, was also injured. No one has been charged in the killing.•August 2007: Jimmy Melvin Jr., his younger brother Cory Patrick Melvin and Andrew Hudder were charged in several firebombings in Dartmouth, Fairview and Bayers Lake Business Park. The three will go on trial next June.
Here’s a brief history of these two notorious families:•April 25, 1988: Arnold (Smiley) Joseph Bailey is fatally shot on a Halifax street in what police believe was a drug-related shooting. Police later charged Spryfield drug dealer Terry Marriott Sr. with murder, but he was acquitted in June 1991.•October 1991: Police seized about 3.5 tonnes of hash from a truck on Highway 103 near Chester. It’s believed the drugs had been offloaded from a Panamanian vessel. Jimmy Melvin Sr., then of Spryfield, was among the 10 charged. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1994 for his part in the operation. •November 1992: A Spanish vessel led a U.S. Coast Guard vessel on a 19-hour chase through rough seas before sinking early the next day off the coast of Newfoundland, taking with it an estimated three tonnes of cocaine. Unaware of what had happened, Jimmy Melvin Sr. and a Crown witness spent two days trying to get out to the mother ship to offload the drugs for the Hells Angels. Mr. Melvin, described at sentencing as "the second in command, was among five Nova Scotians charged in the crime. He was sentenced in 1997 to 5 1/2 years for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.•Nov. 20, 1998: Richard Joseph (Ricky) Marriott, 32, was shot in his house, along with his girlfriend, Gail Stone. Ricky, who used a wheelchair and was Terry Marriott Sr.’s brother, was facing three drug charges of his own. He died at the scene, and Ms. Stone died in hospital four days later. In August 2000, Ricky’s brother William Ralph (Billy) Marriott, 38, hanged himself in a Halifax jail cell. Billy faced trial for first-degree murder in the killing of former Hells Angels associate William St. Clair Wendelborg, and Billy’s girlfriend, Wanda Lynn Campbell, was later found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. Ms. Campbell’s trial was told that Terry Marriott Sr. thought Billy murdered Ricky, although the rest of the family might not agree.•1999: Operation Crack Pot, a joint-forces investigation that targeted street-level drug dealers, a Halifax corner store and eight crack houses. Undercover police bought drugs 60 times during the operation. Terry Marriott Sr. and Terry Marriott Jr. were among the 40 people charged. Terry Marriott Sr. served four years for trafficking and his son got 4 1/2 years for possession. (Since December 1992, Terry Jr. has been sentenced to over 7 1/2 years of federal time. At one point, the National Parole Board had ordered Terry Jr. to stay away from his father because of his lengthy criminal history)•December 2001: Police raided the now-defunct Halifax chapter of the Hells Angels. Members and associates, including Jimmy Melvin Sr., are among those arrested and charged with drug offences. The name of Terry Marriott Sr. is found in exhibits seized by cops, but no explanation is given at the time. Jimmy Melvin Sr. is sentenced to another six years and three months for selling hash.•May to June 2002: An undercover police investigation dubbed Operation Midway swept up 81 people including many Marriott and Melvin family associates. The raids also hit homes and businesses owned by some family members and associates. Bruce Alan Jackson, a drug dealer turned informant, detailed in court how the second generation of Melvins and Marriotts ran a drug ring in Halifax. Mr. Jackson was the manager of a Herring Cove Road crack shop in a ring operated by one of Terry Marriott Sr.’s sons, Brian James Bremner (a.k.a. B.J. Marriott); the young man’s cousin, Gary (Boo) Boudreau and longtime friend James Bernard Melvin (a.k.a. Jimmy Melvin Jr.).
Jimmy Jr., who was already in jail when the arrests were made, was later sentenced to three years for attempting to have someone smuggle drugs to him in prison as part of Operation Midway. That was to be served on top of a two-year term he received in December 2002 for possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in May 2001. His sentence ended on May 17, 2006, but he had been in custody in relation to other charges until he was ordered released a month ago, on Nov. 14.
Mr. Boudreau received six years and six months for drug and weapons offences. While it may have been his first federal sentence, he told a National Parole Board panel last year that he’d been selling drugs since he was 13 and became a high-level dealer in 2000. Now 32, Mr. Boudreau, who co-owned a Herring Cove Road tanning salon that was firebombed in 2006, has kept himself out of jail since his release last year.B.J. Marriott, who was also in jail when the investigation was underway, was eventually convicted and sentenced to a total of six years for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Dartmouth between June 17 and June 20, 2002 and possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at Springhill Institution between May 27 to May 31, 2002. The drugs headed for the Springhill prison were supposed to go to Wayne James, a Halifax man serving time for a Hells Angels-related murder. Although B.J. Marriott didn’t actually handle the drugs, the judge ruled that he had control of the prison packages through the people that did his bidding. His mother, Dawn Bremner, and his uncle, Teddy Bremner, each received 18-month conditional sentences for their part in the operation. Jimmy Jr.’s then-girlfriend, Jennifer Purcell and Jimmy Jr.’s mother, Debbie Melvin, received two years and 12 months, respectively, while charges against Mr. Boudreau’s wife and his grandmother were dismissed. In the end, 66 people were convicted for varying roles in the drug ring, and some on multiple charges. Neither Jimmy Sr. nor Terry Sr. was among those arrested.
Now 26, B.J. Marriott is in prison in the Prairie region where he is serving 16 years and four months for manslaughter; two counts of assault with a weapon; assault causing bodily harm; two counts of possessing a dangerous weapon; and possessing property obtained by criminal activity; and the drug charges. He was eligible for day parole on Nov. 28, but did not apply. He also decided to postpone an upcoming parole board hearing scheduled for next May. Instead, the board is expected to hear his case in May 2011.•Oct. 25, 2002: At about 6 a.m., at least one Molotov cocktail and five bullets hit 28 Sylvia Ave., which is owned by Jimmy Melvin Sr. An hour earlier, two bullets went through a kitchen window of a nearby home on Emerald Crescent. Wayne Douglas Robinson, a cousin of Terry Marriott Jr. is later arrested in the firebombing. In the following years, houses, apartment buildings or businesses were either shot at or firebombed on Arvida Avenue, Herring Cove Road, Hartlen Avenue and Old Sambro Road. •July 7 and Sept. 3, 2004: On these two evenings, shots were fired outside 490 Herring Cove Rd. and Terry Marriott Jr. was hit both times. He was hit in the armpit and hip the first time, with witnesses saying four shots came from a green van. In September, police arrived at the house after the victim left for hospital. He tells investigators the shooting was an accident. His uncle, James Cameron, is the listed owner of the property.•June 20, 2006: Wayne Nicholas (Chop) Marriott, 21, was shot dead at about 10:50 p.m., moments after driving up to the Beechville home he was renting. The man he was with, Jeremy Alvin Leblanc, then aged 24, was also injured. No one has been charged in the killing.•August 2007: Jimmy Melvin Jr., his younger brother Cory Patrick Melvin and Andrew Hudder were charged in several firebombings in Dartmouth, Fairview and Bayers Lake Business Park. The three will go on trial next June.
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