Two young men who smashed windows, trashed a store and assaulted an elderly man on Bell Island this summer have been given sentences of 30 months each behind bars.

Christian Jenkins and Wayne Boone, both 20, went on a drunken rampage in August in an incident that lasted a few hours.

At provincial court in St. John's on Tuesday, judge Mike Madden said the men had no excuse for how they terrorized part of Bell Island on Aug. 30.

The defence for Boone had asked for a sentence just under two years, so that he could be close to family at a local jail.

Madden handed out a higher sentence of 30 months, but less than the recommendation of as much as four years sought by the Crown. The sentences are reduced by time served since their arrests.

Both men had earlier pleaded guilty to charges that included assault with a weapon.

During the melee, the pair assaulted a 79-year-old man, forcing him to flee from his house so that he would not be beaten by a two-by-four.

Diane Butler, co-owner of Ridgeway Variety, said she is still not over how the pair trashed her store, which has resumed operations with a staff of 12.

"We aren't relaxed anymore. It's very, very stressful," she said.

"Every time someone comes to the door, the clerks, they look frightened to death that it could be somebody like them."

Butler said she would have liked the sentence to have been higher.

"I feel the judge was a little lenient with them, considering all the damage and all the people they hurt that day," she said.