‘I apologize’

With his plaited hair initially rolled up and then in flowing dreadlocks, Steve Carlton Skeete admitted to being a Rastafarian and said he did not have a problem with drugs nor did he need help.

“I don’t rob, I don’t steal, I have it for my personal use,” he told Acting Magistrate Anika Jackson in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court where he was facing three drug-related charges.

Skeete, a 46-year-old farmer of Griffith’s Land, Black Rock, St Michael, initially pleaded guilty to unlawful  possession of cannabis and not guilty to trafficking and intending to supply, all on January 23, 2019.

However, attorney-at-law Harry Husbands appeared as a friend of the court and spoke to Skeete who changed his “not guilty” pleas.

According to Prosecutor, PC Kenmore Phillips, lawmen executed a search warrant at Skeete’s home and found nothing inside the house, however with the assistance of the Canine Unit, a bag containing vegetable matter suspected to be cannabis was retrieved from the cellar. Skeete admitted knowledge and ownership of the approximately 69 grams with an estimated value of $345.

The acting Magistrate noted that Skeete’s conviction card started in 1996 for a similar offence.

He told the court “Ma’am, I apologize for my actions. I take full responsibility.”

On the first count of possession, Skeete was fined $750 in three months, or on default, spend three months in prison.  On the other two charges, he was convicted, reprimanded and discharged.