"Put your hands in the air for baby Quinn," Justin Michael Jordan said to several reporters while being led into the courtroom at provincial court in St. John's this morning.
Jordan made a brief appearance before Judge Mark Pike. Lawyers opted to have Jordan undergo a lunch-hour psychiatric assessment.
When Jordan returned to court Thursday afternoon, duty counsel Catherine Boyde told the judge that a further week-long evaluation has been requested by the doctors at the Waterford Hospital. Jordan is due back in court June 22.
Jordan, 25, was said to have stabbed Butt several times with a shank while they were in the outside recreation area at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary (HMP) in St. John’s on June 8.
Butt’s shirt was said to have been soaked with blood and he was immediately treated by HMP medical staff. He hasn’t had any medical issues since and is recovering, sources say.
Butt made headlines last year when he was charged with killing his young daughter. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and arson in relation to the death of his daughter, Quinn, who was five years old. Butt and Quinn were found inside his burning home on Hayden Heights in Carbonear on April 24, 2016.
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Butt has been in custody since then. His trial is set for 2018.
Jordan, meanwhile, has an extensive criminal background, with several violent offences involving weapons.
On May 4, he was sentenced to six months in jail and two years’ probation. He was convicted on charges of assaulting a man with a weapon, mischief, uttering threats to police officers and breaching probation. That was in connection with an incident on April 20.
At 12:30 a.m., Jordan stabbed the man on Empire Avenue and took off. The 45-year-old man was taken to hospital before emergency responders arrived. Police say the two men know each other.
RNC officers tracked Jordan to an apartment building on Anspatch Street, in west-end St. John’s, where he lived and had barricaded himself inside. Police say Jordan told officers he was armed and he smashed out a window in the unit.
After police negotiated with Jordan for a few hours, he gave himself up at 3:30 a.m. and was arrested without incident, police said.
On Sept. 21, 2016, he received a five-month jail term, with a year’s probation, on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a dangerous weapon.
On Aug. 21, 2012, he was convicted of assault with a weapon and got a four-month prison sentence.
He was handed a 3 1/2-year prison term on Feb. 3, 2010, after he was convicted of robbery, break and enter, and possessing illegal drugs.
