When he caused a disturbance and used indecent language to a police officer on February 5, he was angry, having just been robbed of $1,900.

That’s what Andrew Ricardo Turney, a 40-year-old vendor of Coverley, Christ Church told a Magistrate’s Court, presided over by Douglas Frederick.

He pleaded guilty to the offences and apologized to the court.

Attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman, who appeared for Turney, said that he told him he had been robbed before the incident and it was in the heat of the moment that the indecent language was used. The accused said he did not know that the woman who spoke to him was a police officer because she was sitting in a car and was not in uniform.

The magistrate noted that Turney had appeared before him on similar charges, but the accused said he had changed and had decided to turn around his life, adding that he was going to England in April in the hope of getting a job.

According to the facts revealed to the court by prosecutor Sergeant Carrison Henry, Turney was near Time Out in the Dover area when he was observed by the policeman using indecent language. She approached him identified herself and told him he was causing a disturbance in the area. He continued using profanities. Another policeman came and the two lawmen took him into custody.

In his exchange with the police, Turney said “You aint got no say. You now come bout hey. You can’t tell me what to do . . . .”

The magistrate placed him on a bond for one year. If he defaults, he will spend three months in prison for the offence of causing a disturbance. He was convicted, reprimanded and discharged for using indecent language.

The post Turney gets year bond for causing disturbance appeared first on Barbados Today.

“I tried it to see what it would taste like and ever since I have been hooked!”

That was the confession of 42-year-old Simon Emanuel Gabriel of no fixed place of abode, who said he started taking drugs, including cocaine, as a youth. Further questioned by Magistrate Douglas Frederick, the former bartender said he stole to satisfy his drug habit. He also attended Verdun House, the centre for rehabilitation in St John.

Gabriel pleaded guilty to four theft charges when he appeared in the Distriuct ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court and four other charges were transferred to the Oistins Court to be heard later this month.

The confessed addict admitted that on February 1, 2019, he entered Kensington Court and stole one briefcase valued $100 belonging to H. Jason Jones. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

He also pleaded guilty to entering Unique High School, Dayrell’s Road, Christ Church on January 24, 2019 and stealing two knives, chicken, soft drinks and biscuits and ten dollars in cash, a total value of $138. He was sentenced to nine months to run consecutively.

Gabriel also entered the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) School, Dalkeith, St Michael on January 26 and stole items and cash worth $108. He was sentenced to three months to run consecutively. He entered the home of Sarah Laverick of Crystal Waters, Worthing, Christ Church and stole $650 on January 28, 2019. The sentence was three months to run consecutively.

According to Prosecutor, Sergeant Carrison Henry, Gabriel was seen peering into the H. Jason Jones showroom where the briefcases were on display and was later chased by employees. He dropped a briefcase and it was picked up. The police was passing near Kensington Oval, saw what was happening and stopped.

In the case of the Unique High School, the crook took the items from the canteen. The principal got a phone call and later confirmed that the items were missing.

At the SDA School, a training programme was being conducted and the staff left their clothing and other items in a classroom and on their return found the items missing. Gabriel admitted to taking them.

At Laverick’s Worthing home she was asleep when the ringing of her phone woke her and she saw Gabriel in her living room. She checked and found the money missing.

He will also appear in the Oistins Magistrates’ Court to answer the following charges on February 12:

On January, 22, 2019, he entered Sandals Resort and stole four chickens, valued $80.

Between January 31 and February 1, 2019, he entered Breeze Bar and Grill and stole a quantity of items including red and white wine, rum, Guiness, fish, beef burgers, steak pie, worth $717.

Between January 31 and February 1, he damaged a lock belonging to Sandra Felix.

Between December 27 and 28, 2018, he entered the home of Jean Yearwood and stole items worth $2,135.

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In a barely audible voice, 18-year-old accused Ramario Antonio Roach who is facing three murder charges including one relating to the death of his mother, asked a Bridgetown Magistrates’ Court if he could go to the Psychiatric Hospital.

The teenager, of River Bay, St Lucy, made his first appearance in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant, who asked him if he had a lawyer to which he replied “no”.

The charge against Roach, is that last December 18, he murdered-68-year-old Tyrone Austin of Free Hill Black Rock, St Michael. He was not required to plead to the indictable charge and was remanded until March 6.

Roach is set to re-appear in the Holetown Magistrates’ Court, St James before Magistrate Wanda Blair on February, 28 on two other murder charges. He is charged with murdering his mother, Joann Roach, 38, of River Bay, St Lucy, whose partially decomposed body was found in a watercourse on Errol Barrow Day, January 21. The other charge is that he murdered Dr Sarah Sutrina, 68, a lecturer in microbiology at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies also on January 21. The mutilated body was found at 22 Ocean State,

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Who is Dennis Fitzroy Semple or Akeem Haleem Abdul Nur El who has been living in Barbados for the past 11 years, having come from Guyana on October 2, 2007? There is no departure record for him.

This situation was highlighted in the Bridgetown Traffic Court presided over by Magistrate Graveney Bannister, as the 40-year-old barber of Fairholme Gardens, Christ Church, pleaded guilty to five traffic offences. These arose from an incident on February 4 at Melrose Apartments, Worthing, Christ Church.

The accused faced charges that he was the owner of a car with registration S7237 which had not been registered with the Barbados Licensing Authority and that he fraudulently allowed the registration number to be used. He was fined $400 on each of the offences. For driving the car without insurance he was fined $1,000 and for refusing to give his name and address to the police when requested to do so and having no driver’s licence he was fined $500 each.

The fines must be paid by February 15 or he will spend 100 days in jail.    

In outlining the facts, Prosecutor PC Kevin Forde said the matter arose out of an incident at Melrose Apartments and when asked to give his name and address, the barber said: “I live in my body. I am a citizen of earth.” 

When told it was an offence not to give his address, he replied: “I don’t have an address. I live in my body. I am a citizen of earth.”

In asking the court not to grant bail, the prosecutor noted that the barber was uncooperative and there were on-going investigations concerning drug charges. Attorney-at-law, Ryan Moseley counsel for the non-national, noted that he was a first time offender, gave an early guilty plea and had been operating his barber business here for the past eight years.

It was then revealed by police that the accused had submitted a Guyana passport, which was not authenticated by the Guyana Consulate in Barbados, and furthermore he had refused to be processed. The magistrate ordered that he be processed.

Inspector Vernon Farrell from the Major Crimes Unit at the Glebe Police Station, St George, said among other things, the accused claimed to be a member of the Moorish Divine and National Movement of the World which purports to have jurisdiction worldwide. In addition to giving members the privilege of changing their name, it also gives them free movement.

He said in a check with the United States Embassy here, officials said they had no knowledge of the association and further investigations revealed that it is a radical sect.

The accused is also facing drug charges which are unlawful possession of 1 kg. of cannabis worth $4 000, trafficking, intent to supply and having apparatus.

These matters have been transferred to the Oistins Court and are set to be heard on February 15. In the meantime, the non-national has been remanded to prison.

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A St Michael man was ordered to do 80 hours community service for obstructing a policeman in the execution of his duty.

Romario Anthony Brown, 25, of 36 Phillips Road in the Pine, pleaded guilty when he appeared before Magistrate Douglas Frederick in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Sergeant Carrison Henry told the court that last Wednesday, a joint team of police officers and soldiers was on patrol in the area of Golden Rock, Pine, when they spoke to a young man wearing a camouflage shirt and the accused who was indulging in a football game.

According to the prosecutor, the accused stopped what he was doing and went over to the area where the policeman was talking to the young man and said in a loud and aggressive manner: “Wunna is do bare . . . .”

The prosecutor added that the policeman spoke to the accused about his manner and while doing so, the youth in the camouflage ran off and the other members of the patrol gave chase.  He added that the young man took off his shirt and threw it over the fenced yard of a nearby house.

As a result, the accused was told that he had obstructed the police officer in execution of his duty and was asked his name and he refused and started to struggle. He was eventually subdued and taken to the police station.

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Some accused who are on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison, Dodd’s St Philip, are questioning the repeated adjournments in their cases.

When they turned up in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court and prosecutor, Sergeant Carrison Henry asked for an adjournment, one politely turned to Magistrate Douglas Frederick and said: “Excuse me Sir when will my matter be heard.”

In one case, a young man said he’s the holder of seven CXC’s, is a graduate of the Barbados Community College and has been on remand for the past 24 months.

“I am wasting my time here, I could be studying at the university,” he told the court.

Another also voiced his concern, pointing out that he too had been on remand for 24 months.

Noting that so many things have changed over the years, Magistrate Frederick told them that there was a time when people would throng the surroundings of the court to see a murder accused but it no longer happens because there are so many murders today, and the same police officers have to carry out investigations into other offences.

“It is overwhelming,” he noted.

He said however that everything was being done to ease the situation.

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The inquest into the unnatural death of 33-year-old Corey Antonio Best continued today with a site visit to a holding cell at Oistins Police Station where the body of the former Hopefield, Charnocks, Christ Church resident was found hanging on April 13, 2017.

When Coroner Manila Renee, her staff, Best’s family and attorney returned to the court at Cane Garden, St Thomas police officers who saw Best before and after his death gave their evidence.

Sergeant Julia Wood and police constable Jason Clarke were the officers who escorted Best into the station after they found him on Maxwell Hill, Christ Church, on a bridge trying to open a cash tin with a “big rock”.

At some point Best, who was placed in the holding cell, shouted for Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Dale Stephen who was in charge of the Southern Division at the time of the incident. The ASP knew Best and his family.

ASP Stephen under questioning by family attorney Tristan Elcock said he went to the cell where Best asked for his mother, Angela Best. He then went to the front office to make a check but she was not there so he gave Best the information and left.

“When Corey shouted my name, I went to the cell . . . he was still wearing his pants . .  . . When I left and came back to the cells he was still wearing his pants,” ASP Stephen told the court in answer to a direct question by the attorney concerning the pants with which Best is alleged to have hung himself.

Officer Clarke said he was in the front room when the alarm was raised by a police constable that ‘it appeared that the man in the cell hang himself with his pants’.

Clarke and other colleagues went to the cell. “I observed that suspect Corey Best was hanging from a ventilation bar at the rear of the cells with the jeans pants that I saw him wearing earlier,” Clarke said. With the help of other officers they took Best down but “he did not appear to be breathing”.

Scenes of crime investigator Sergeant Wayne Griffith of the Forensic Scenes of Crime Unit was called in.

He said when he arrived at the cell Best who was clad in black boxers and vest was lying on his back on a wooden bed with his legs hanging over and downwards.

“There was a ligature mark around his neck . . . no marks of violence were seen on his body,” Sergeant Griffith said.

He went on to tell the court that there were 29 vertical iron bars at the top section of the cell which are two inches apart and two horizontal metal strips - one to the top and the other at the bottom.

“On the metal strip across the lower section . . . of the iron bars . . . there was a blue jeans pants suspended from the 14 iron bar from the left. The seat of the jeans pants was around the iron bar and both legs were hanging down on the inside wall,” he disclosed.

Following the testimonies Coroner Renee adjourned the inquest until Thursday February 14. (FW)

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An Englishman and Bermudan who were in possession of a “considerable ” quantity of marijuana in Barbados’ territorial waters almost two years ago have been sentenced to spend time behind bars at HMP Dodds.

However, the Englishman 53-year-old Paul Andrew Bell, will serve more time at the St Philip penal institution than his accomplice 47-year-old Shawn Antwoine Simmons, as he played a “principal role” in the transporting of the illegal substance, which weighed 77 kilogrammes and had an open market value of $338,800.

Bell was intercepted on a dinghy about 2.5 nautical miles off Mullins Beach, St Peter while Simmons, a Bermuda national who resided in England since 2013, was caught on the yacht Wanderers Dream not far way around 1 a.m. on July 2, 2017.

Following a search of the dinghy personnel from the Drug Squad, the Police Marine Unit and the Barbados Coast Guard found three black bags containing cannabis. The two vessels were towed to land and it was there that Bell under questioning by police revealed that he was the owner of the yacht and dinghy.

He told lawmen that he left Bermuda at the end of May 2017 headed for St Marteen for boat repairs. While there two men approached him and asked whether he would like to make some money by transporting cocaine to Barbados. He refused that offer but consented to transport 200 pounds of weed to Barbados for US$10,000.

Bell said he was then given coordinates for a GPS navigational system and set his course for Bridgetown with one stop. He explained that when he got a couple miles off Grenada he and Simmons were met with some men on a number of boats who handed over the bags of marijuana which they stored near the bow and the stern.

When the duo arrived near Barbados they transferred the bags to the dinghy and Bell began his journey to shore. However, on seeing police he said he threw a cellular phone that he was carrying into the sea as it contained the contact information for the persons who were to receive the drugs.

The two were each charged with possession, possession with intent to traffic and importation of cannabis. They both pleaded guilty to the offences in October 2018, Crown Counsel Neville Watson said when he previously outlined the facts of the case.

Bell told probation officials he committed the crime for financial gain while Simmons who met Paul in 2014 and became fast friends due to their love of sailing said he was an “unwilling participant” and his involvement was as a result of “a betrayal of trust”.

In handing down the sentence in the No. 5 Supreme Court today Madam Justice Jacqueline Cornelius pointed to the aggravating factors of the case saying the quantity of drugs involved was a “considerable amount” and the evidence showed a measure of sophistication and pre-planning in getting it from one country to the next. She also chastised Bell for “protecting the drug dealers” by throwing the cellular phone overboard.

There were also mitigating factors but the judge made it clear that the crime warranted a custodial sentence.

In Bell’s case Justice Cornelius had settled on a starting point of 12 years in prison but in taking the mitigating and aggravating factors into consideration she made a downward adjustment by three years. A one-third discount was also applied for his guilty plea and his time spent on remand - 586 days – were also taken into account leaving Bell with four years, four months and three weeks left to serve in prison.

Simmons, meanwhile, who the judge described as “a subordinate actor” had a starting sentence of nine years in prison. Cornelius then also reduced that period by three years based on his mitigating and aggravating factors as well as a one-third discount for his guilty plea. Taking into consideration the 586 days already spent on remand Simmons now has only two years, four months and three weeks left to serve on his sentence.

The sentences were imposed on the possession charge.

Bell who was represented by attorney-at-law Steve Gollop and Simmons who had Dr Lenda Blackman as his legal counsel were convicted reprimanded and discharged on the importation and trafficking charges.

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A 44-year-old mother who at one time was addicted to cocaine, is now free of it.

Lisa St John returned to the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court and greeted Magistrate Douglas Frederick with these words “I am ready to go with my family. They are going to look after me. They are even going to get me a job. I don’t need rehab anymore.”

When St John first appeared before Magistrate Frederick last December, he had sent her to the Psychiatric Hospital for an assessment after she pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of cocaine and apparatus on December 20, 2018.

Vowing to keep out of drug holes, St John told the court, “That part of my life is behind. I am starting afresh.”

Her family, including two of her four children and a sister told the court that they were willing to help her.

Magistrate Frederick  then placed her on a bond to keep the peace for six months and if breached, she will spend six months in jail. 

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After five months of trial and an hour and 15 minutes of deliberations a nine-member jury today found Corey Omar McDonald Noel guilty of burglarizing a St George house while brandishing an offensive weapon.

Noel had denied entering the home of Virginia Challenor as a trespasser and stealing $157 in cash, a pair of earrings worth $100, a chain worth $150, a pendant worth $500, two rings worth $10,150 belonging to her as well as two shotguns worth $12,000 and 100 rounds of ammunition belonging to George Challenor on December 8, 2011 all while he was armed with a sword. He was 29 years old at the time.

However, after hearing evidence from 25 witnesses – 15 for the prosecution and 10 for the defence – in the No. 5 Supreme Court since September 2018, the jury returned around 2:30 p.m. with a unanimous verdict today at the Cane Garden, St Thomas court.

Following the conviction an officer from the Criminal Records Department revealed that Noel - who was clad in a long-sleeved fuchsia shirt, black bow tie and black pants with his hair styled in one - had six convictions to his name starting in 1998 including theft, criminal damage and burglary.

“Do you accept those convictions?” Madam Justice Jacqueline Cornelius asked the convicted man.

“I ain’t got nothing to say,” was Noel’s reply before a pre-sentencing report was ordered on him.

Senior Crown Counsel Krystal Delaney and Crown Counsel Neville Watson prosecuted the case while Noel was self represented.

The post Burglar guilty appeared first on Barbados Today.

A 38-year-old man had a change of heart today after his mother made it clear that she was not signing bail on his behalf unless he received help.

“I don’t want to sign bail unless he gets some help. I can’t take the stress that he is putting me through. I can’t take it,” the mother of accused Omalli Laron Shurland told the court when she took the stand today.

It was at that time that Shurland, of 2B South Wildey, Pine, St Michael told Magistrate Douglas Frederick that he would like to change his plea on the charge that he assaulted Baggio Benskin on January 10, 2019.

However, he will have to remain at HMP Dodds until February 18. That’s when the prosecutor will outline the facts of the case against him in preparation for sentencing.

Shurland has been on remand since his first appearance in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, as he had no one to sign his bail.

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Unhesitatingly 51-year-old Casper Errol Harding pleaded guilty to damaging a vehicle belonging to Elaine Rowen of #39 Dover Terrace, Christ Church, on November 26, 2018.

“I accept full responsibility,” he told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court presided over by Magistrate Douglas Frederick.

According to the facts outlined by prosecutor Sergeant Carrison Henry, on the day of the accident both Elaine and her friend Ingrid Frowde observed Harding coming up the driveway to Ingrid’s house. He was heard saying “I am going to kill you”. Elaine kept Harding under observation and saw him approach her vehicle with a rock in each hand and scraped the vehicle from the left front door to the rear door.

The cost of the door is estimated to be $2 500.

When asked if he had anything to say, Harding said that he was in a relationship with Elaine but it came to an end but he still had feelings for her and had gone to the house to talk to her.

According to the accused, he heard Ingrid’s partner say “He’s here, shut the door,” and later “kill he, kill he.”

Among other things, the accused said he had a bag which contained a tennis racquet and a bicycle pump and since the area where the vehicle was parked was small, the car got damaged as he passed.

He also told the court that there was a time when he had no place to live, but his son went overseas a few weeks ago and allowed him to live at No. 4 Marine Gardens, Christ Church.

Harding said that he and Elaine were involved in a property settlement, having been in a relationship for 17 years, and he went to the house “in peace”.

Magistrate Frederick remanded Harding at Her Majesty’s Prison, Dodd’s, St.Philip until March 8, when he returns to court. 

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Bridgetown Magistrate Douglas Frederick remanded a drug accused to Dodds until February 20 after he had no suitable surety to sign bail on his behalf.

It is alleged that Eric Astor Omar
Gibson of No. 308 11th Avenue, West Terrace Gardens, St James did acts preparatory for trafficking cannabis as well as traffic in the illegal drugs between February 5 and 7.

Gibson, who was represented by Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley and attorney-at-law Kadeisha Wickham, entered a not guilty plea to both charges when he appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today.

The illegal substance weighed 37.3 kilogrammes and had a $149, 200 estimated street value.

Prosecutor Station Sergeant Carrison Henry had no objections to bail but asked that the accused’s passport be handed over to the court.

However Lashley informed the magistrate that another court is in possession of the travel document as the accused had a pending charge there.

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He was sentenced to 12 months in prison but having spent seven months on remand Tremaine Kadeem Lawrence only has five months left to serve at HMP Dodds.

Magistrate Douglas Frederick imposed the sentence on the 22-year-old Parish Land, Christ Church resident in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today after reviewing his unfavourable presentencing report.

Lawrence had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting Felicia White on January 9, 2017 occasioning her actual bodily harm.

“That was a case over money,” Lawrence told the magistrate when asked if he had anything to say about the offence.

Just before the sentence was imposed Frederick took a look at the young man’s criminal record which showed he had already amassed several burglary and theft convictions.

He has been on remand for an offence under the Sexual Offences Act which was allegedly committed sometime in August 2018.

The post Twelve-month sentence for Lawrence appeared first on Barbados Today.

An alleged burglar will spend another 28 days on remand at HMP Dodds and return to the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on March 12.

Twenty-year-old Anthony Junior Bishop, of Chapman Village, St Thomas appeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today on two criminal charges.

He however told the magistrate he was not guilty of entering the Special Olympics Barbados Office as a trespasser and stealing 144 toothpaste and toothbrush kits, 90 pairs of shades, two pairs of scissors, 21 box juices, 20 packets of tea/coffee and a first aid kit all worth $3,111.80. He is also charged with stealing an internet extender worth $75. 64 when entered Arbor House also as a trespasser.

The offences were allegedly committed between January 3 and 14.

When he made his first appearance in another court the prosecutor there had objected to bail on several grounds. This afternoon District ‘A’ prosecutor Station Sergeant Cameron Gibbons strengthen those objections telling he magistrate, among other things, that the accused had a similar case pending in the court.

“The last time we sympathized with him now he finds himself before the court again,” the Crown’s representative stated.

However, Bishop asked Cuffy-Sargeant to grant him bail because “jail beating me bad”.

His application was denied.

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A drug mule who swallowed 25 packages of marijuana to smuggle into Barbados in order to clear a debt back home has been handed a 12-month jail sentence.

The Jamaican woman, Stacy-Ann Cleopatra Beckford, who ingested the illegal substance which was wrapped in plastic and has a $4,000 estimated street value was stopped when she arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport on February 4.

She was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she passed out the illegal drugs, prosecutor Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls told Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell today.

The 33-year-old from Clarendon, who was discharged from the hospital on Monday February 11, was subsequently charged with possession, possession with intent to supply, possession with intent to traffic and importation of cannabis.

After the facts were outlined, Beckford explained that she committed the crime in order to repay a debt, which she has pending back in Jamaica. She further explained that she was informed that she could get more money here for the substance than back at home.

The sentence was imposed on the trafficking charge and Beckford was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the other offences.

The post Smuggler jailed appeared first on Barbados Today.

A Canadian woman who trafficked in 17 kilogrammes of cannabis in her suitcase after being lured with the promise of monetary gain will know her fate in another two weeks.

Gahiara Pierre from Ontario arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport February 10.

According to the facts read by prosecutor Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls the accused had two suitcases which were searched by officals and found to have false bottoms. Contained in them was a total of 70 vacuum sealed packages with the illegal substance worth $136,000.

She reportedly told lawmen at the time of her arrest that she was scheduled to meet someone at the airport and hand over the suitcases but she did not know who that person was. She was also to receive $7,000 for bringing the suitcases.

Following those details in the District ‘F’ Magistrates’ Court today Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell remanded the visitor to Dodds until February 26 at which time she will be sentenced.

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Twenty-year-old Teriq Kaareem Linton was granted $20, 000 bail today when he appeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant in the District ‘A’ Magistrate Court on multiple charges.

Linton, of #2 Canewood Road, Tichbourne, St Michael is accused of kidnapping, aggravated burglary and robbery.

He is scheduled to reappear in court on October 9.

[video width="640" height="352" mp4="https://barbadostoday.bb/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/VID-20190213-WA0010.mp4"][/video]

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A 48-year-old manslayer was today given a starting sentence of 18 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Kari Nolan Cumberbatch six years ago.

Dave Henderson Powers, of No. 9 Clinketts Garden, St Lucy and Eden Lodge, St Michael was originally charged with murdering 33-year-old Cumberbatch in the car park of CinCin By the Sea Restaurant in Prospect, St James on Wednesday January 16, 2013. However, he had pleaded not guilty to the capital offence, but guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

He also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm, possession of ammunition and attempted murder. However Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Blackman, who was the prosecutor in the case, formally withdrew a kidnapping charge against Powers in the No. 2 Supreme Court today.

The incident occurred around 10 a.m. on the aforementioned date when the deceased, who was driving, arrived with Powers’ wife at the upscaled restaurant where they both worked. Powers and his wife were separated.

The facts showed that Powers approached them armed with a gun and confronted the deceased who was sitting in the car and shot him in the head. He then went into the car and pointed the gun at his wife’s head and pulled the trigger but it did not discharge.

In sentencing Justice Randall Worrell noted that Powers had indicated that the criminal act was not something that he had planned to do but “there must have been some planning involved for you to go there with a firearm and ammunition – there had to be some planning and pre meditation – you were armed, [there is] nothing in this case about self defence . . . I cannot accept that it was a spontaneous act by you.

“A person has lost their life. That life cannot be brought back. A person’s life is finished at your hands . . . forever lost,” the judge stated.

Worrell went on to explain that while Powers had surrendered himself, he could find no mitigating factors when it came to the offence.

“You should not have been there no matter how bad things were . . . . I can’t find anything mitigatory in the case of the offence.  [You went] there . . . taking out a loaded weapon, a firearm . . . . It was quite clear you were unlawfully in possession of that firearm and the use of the firearm is also aggravating,” the judge added.

Making reference to guideline cases Justice Worrell settled on a starting point of 18 years in prison but adjusted the sentence upwards by four years given that Powers used a dangerous weapon and “you were armed with it in advance
. . . showing planning and premeditation”.

With a sentence of 22 years the judge then took into account that the convicted man had no previous convictions and according to character witnesses was an industrious and law-abiding young man before the incident. He was also contrite and admitted that it was an egregious act.

His guilty plea was also considered but Worrell made it clear that Powers could not get the full one-third credit.

“Although you pleaded guilty, persons were there and saw what you did . . . this was in broad daylight . . . what else could you have done but plead guilty,” the judge stated.

With all those factors taken into consideration, Powers was left with a 14-year sentence. However, Justice Worrell also took into consideration the six years and one month already spent on remand leaving the convicted man with seven years and 11 months to serve on the charge of manslaughter.

On the other charges of attempted murder Powers who was represented by attorney-at-law Angella Mitchell-Gittens was given a ten-year sentence and possession of a firearm seven years on each. However those sentences will run concurrently since the offences stemmed from the same incident.

The post Manslayer sentenced appeared first on Barbados Today.

A Canadian man is out thousands of dollars after failing to get permission from the Exchange Control Authority to leave Barbados with US$15,000.

Station Sergeant Glenda Carter-Nicholls in prosecuting the case in the District ‘F’ Magistrates’ Court yesterday revealed that 63-year-old Claude Samard of Quebec was caught with the United States currency at the Grantley Adams International Airport on February 9.

He had concealed the money on different parts of his body including his underwear and pockets.

It was also disclosed before Magistrate Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell that the visitor sold some shares he had in a company here but failed to seek permission from the Central Bank of Barbados to leave the country with it.

Investigations by law enforcement officers reportedly showed that Samard was familiar with the procedure for leaving the island with large sums of cash but chose not to follow through.

Following his guilty plea and facts of the case Samard was fined $5,000 forthwith with an alternative of three months in prison.

The money was paid. He also had to forfeit the US$15,000.

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