Man gets 18 months for assaulting bakery owner

Insisting that the court could not condone his “barbaric” behaviour, Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes sentenced Jamal Rawson Renaldo Haynes to 18 months in prison for assaulting the female bakery owner—an incident that was widely circulated on social media.

“You brutalised this lady over a disagreement . . . .Your behaviour was totally out of proportion with any rational behaviour. We do not live in a barbaric society. We live in a society where disagreements should be settled peacefully,” Weekes told Haynes.

Last month, Haynes, 39, of Johnson Land, Green Hill, St Michael, pleaded guilty to assaulting Oniecka Paul-Forde, causing her actual bodily harm, destroying her cell phone and damaging her business, Home Pride Bakery, on July 2. He was remanded pending sentencing.

During the auto-body repairman’s reappearance in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, the magistrate stated that checks had revealed that Haynes had already been through the Probation Department, and several magistrates had attempted to help him manage his anger through programmes and by placing him on bonds to keep the peace.

Admitting to attending anger management classes, Haynes replied, “I am willing, if you allow, to work on controlling myself.”

Weekes, however, responded, “This court will not be placing you on any anger management programme again. We have passed that road already, and if the courts have already done their interventions, there is no plan to go down that road again. That would be an exercise in futility. You are clearly not learning. Part of the court’s mission is to look at rehabilitation, but that has been tried with you. You have not learnt anything from those sessions of anger management or on any bonds.”

Haynes claimed that he was only triggered because the complainant had a bad attitude and had bitten him, saying, “I have learnt something because I tried to walk away from it, but the situation was very tenuous because I was trying to sort out my children. I love my children very much, and it hurts me to see that I back in this situation again.”

Lamenting that society has become “an extremely volatile place”, where persons were not settling issues the proper way, Weekes stressed, “this court can in no way, shape or fashion condone your actions.”

“I understand that, Sir,” Haynes replied.

Ordering him to spend a year and a half behind bars for the assault, Weekes also sentenced him to serve six months for damaging the cell phone and the business. All sentences will run concurrently.

“You cannot expect to behave like a savage in a civilised place. A message must be sent to those who believe that this is a place for this kind of behaviour. I wish you all the best, and that the time you spend up there that you will again be schooled as best as they can in terms of your anger management and that you will come out of it a better person,” Weekes added.

The court had previously heard that Haynes had entered the bakery in Bush Hall Yard Gap and ordered pastries and handed Paul-Forde a folded $100 bill. Noticing the bill was torn, she refused to accept it.

A verbal altercation ensued, and Haynes flew into a rage and threw a stone through the bakery’s window. He left the establishment, and Paul-Forde followed him down Spooner’s Hill while recording him on her cell phone in order to identify him to the police.

Haynes then snatched the cell phone and dropped it before grabbing Paul-Forde by her hair and punching her several times before she fell to the ground.