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NASHUA – Starting almost as soon as he settled in for a 22-year term in State Prison back in 2006, Nashua resident Bradford Chartrand found himself struggling to adjust to life on the inside.

Chartrand, now 38, was 24 when he was sentenced to 22-50 years in prison as part of a plea deal in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count each of second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the December 2005 stabbing death of Matthew Howland, 21, during a fight in a Chestnut Street apartment.

The stand-committed prison sentence is tied to the murder charge, while a 7 1/2-15 year sentence on the first-degree assault charge was to be served concurrently, or at the same time, as the stand-committed sentence.

Chartrand’s difficulties adjusting to prison prompted him to join what his attorney called a white-supremacist gang, and rack up a series of disciplinary violations “for assorted, but minor, rule violations,” according to the attorney, Adam Bernstein.

Chartrand was eventually transferred to the Idaho Department of Correction in Boise, then returned to New Hampshire about three years ago.

Since then, Bernstein wrote in his client’s petition to suspend the remainder of his sentence, Chartrand did an about face, entering, and completing, a series of prison programs ranging from obtaining a high school equivalency certificate and parenting and conflict resolution programs to groups offering basic recovery skills and relationship enhancement.

Late last month, Bernstein and Chartrand, at a hearing at Hillsborough County Superior Court South, presented to Judge Charles Temple a petition outlining the reasons they feel Chartrand should be granted his request to suspend the remainder of the minimum 22-year sentence he received as part of the plea deal in December 2006.

Temple, following that hearing, told the parties he would take the petition under consideration and issue an order in the near future.

Should Temple grant Chartrand’s petition, he will have served roughly 16 years of the minimum sentence, which included credit for about one year of pretrial confinement.

Since returning to New Hampshire, Chartrand “has had a mindset change,” Bernstein wrote in the petition, noting that his client “has remained discipline-free since August 2019.”

Chartrand has also “refuted his gang membership,” Bernstein said, noting that prison officials agreed to remove from Chartrand’s prison central file the documents regarding his gang-affiliation designation.

Chartrand is now able to “articulate how drinking has been problematic for him … and he has made the decision to never go back to abusing alcohol when released from prison,” Bernstein wrote.

He also stated in the petition that members of Chartrand’s immediate family reside in the Nashua area, including his parents, his wife, his three daughters and his three stepchildren.

He has an especially “strong relationship” with his three daughters, now young adults, who have all visited their father during his incarceration, Bernstein said.

Chartrand was charged with fatally stabbing Howland, and stabbing and wounding another man, early the morning of Dec. 17, 2005, according to Telegraph stories at the time.

Nearly three dozen people, many of them family members and friends of both Chartrand and Howland, filled the courtroom for the plea and sentencing hearing in December 2006.

“I am sorry for my role in everything that happened that night,” Chartrand said during brief remarks.

In the petition, meanwhile, Bernstein wrote that Chartrand “acknowledges that the crimes he committed, and entered pleas of guilty to, were serious offenses.”

Chartrand “has paid a significant penalty for his poor choices and has worked hard during his incarceration to rehabilitate himself,” Bernstein added.

“He has made arrangements to continue that rehabilitation upon his release.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.