A 31-year-old man who burglarised a funeral home and also stole from a woman who used to feed him, has been remanded to Dodds until June 25 pending sentence.
Jerome O’Brien Rudder, of no fixed place of abode, pleaded guilty to entering Downes and Wilson Funeral Home as a trespasser on May 21 and stealing a $90 speaker and a $35 hard drive belonging to James Wilson and Company Limited.
He also admitted before Magistrate Douglas Frederick today that he stole a $240 Phablet belonging to Corinne Benn between May 11 and 18.
According to the facts the accused was in the habit of visiting Benn’s home and asking for something to eat. During the mentioned period he made the customary visit and sat in the patio waiting. But while the homeowner was inside he pushed his hand through a nearby bedroom window, pulled at the bed sheet and took the electronic device that was there.
He left and the homeowner came out and shouted for Rudder who had walked off. He came back and received something to eat.
When Benn went back inside she realised the item was missing and reported it to police.
During the crime at the funeral home located at Eagle Hall, St Michael, Rudder entered, took the items and was seen on CCTV footage.
“I apologise for my actions. I am on crack cocaine. Sometimes I do not have the money [to buy it]. I want to change my life around,” Rudder said as he disclosed that he had been living on the streets for the past three weeks after his mother put him out.
His mother who was also in court told the magistrate when her son was released from prison she warned him about the streets and to behave himself. She said she put him out after he “kept taking up things at home”.
She revealed that he kept asking to come back home but she stipulated that he could do so only after he had gone to rehab but “from the same rehab he took up a bicycle”.
“I don’t have problems with him coming back home but he has to turn his life around.
“He on the streets and people looking for him . . . I don’t want nobody come looking for him and kill me,” she stated.
