Man involved in Mount Pearl standoff faces charges

When Justin Wiseman was taken into custody in mid-March after a six-hour standoff with police that ended in a fire, it may have been the end of a crime spree.
Wiseman, 26, was escorted into provincial court in St. John’s Thursday afternoon by sheriff’s officers after he was charged with nine offences.
Wiseman had been out of jail for about two weeks when police visited him at a home on Jersey Avenue in Mount Pearl on March 13. Wiseman was wanted on a warrant for violating his parole, and RNC officers had received information he might be in the house.
Wiseman refused to come out, though he spoke with police officers from his doorway. At one point he told them he would be out in 20 minutes, after he had a smoke.
Over the course of the afternoon, three women left the home. After the last one exited around 6:30 p.m., police realized the house was on fire and stormed it, arresting Wiseman. Wiseman was put on a stretcher and taken to hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries.
While Wiseman was returned to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence, he wasn’t charged with anything new until this week. Police charged him Wednesday afternoon with arson and possession of a weapon — a knife — in connection with the standoff, as well as charges related to a break-in at the Kelsey Drive Liquor Store in St. John’s and an armed robbery at Marie’s Mini Mart in Mount Pearl earlier the same day. Wiseman is accused of robbing the convenience store while wearing a mask and carrying a knife and a hammer.
Police also charged Wiseman with a break-in at an Ultramar location on Bay Bulls Road on March 2, and for having possession of a stolen vehicle in the three days leading up to the standoff.
Wiseman made a brief appearance Thursday before Judge Pamela Goulding, who remanded him in custody to await his next court date on April 19.
Wiseman is no stranger to the courts and it wasn’t his first standoff with police.
In 2013, he barricaded himself inside a house on Springdale Street with a shotgun after committing an armed robbery. He later pleaded guilty to 17 charges.
In November 2014, Wiseman was one of a number of inmates at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary convicted in connection with an attack on convicted killer Kenny Green in the prison’s chapel. Green received serious injuries after he was attacked with homemade knives and struck with a broken church pew.

Twitter: @tara_bradbury