Five years for injuring two

A man charged with inflicting serious bodily harm and unlawful wounding was sentenced today by Justice Pamela Beckles.

She sentenced Kemar Mario Dacosta Greene, 30, to five years on the bodily harm charge and four years on the other. The sentences are to run concurrently.

In respect of the wounding charge, Greene accepted the facts of the incident that occurred on February 26, 2014.

A relationship between Kemar Went and Greene became strained after a dispute between Greene and Went’s father.

On the date of the incident, Went was walking with two others along Applewaithe’s Road, St George where Greene lives. Greene threw a stone and hit Went on the head causing him to fall to the ground unconscious. His face was covered in blood when he regained consciousness and his friends took him to the hospital. He was treated for a fractured skull and detained overnight.

Regarding the serious bodily harm matter, the court heard that on April 5, 2018, Greene was fighting with his niece, who was holding her infant son at the time. Deborah Greene, his aunt, intervened and took the child to safety. When the aunt returned Greene threw stones at her, leaving her with a fractured hand.

Before sentencing the judge looked at Greene’s criminal record and aspects of his pre-sentencing report.

Greene has eight previous convictions including serious bodily harm, burglary and assault. The offences were committed against relatives and members in the Applewaites, St George community.

The pre-sentencing report looked at Greene’s family, educational and employment history, personal history and current attitude toward the offences.

The report said that Greene’s brother, who had Down Syndrome, died at age 17 and Greene was shot three times by an unknown assailant. These occurrences were said to have affected Greene’s behavior.

His drug use and problematic behavior in his community were also highlighted. Residents in the community indicated that they feel unsafe about Greene’s release and feel safer without his presence.

Greene left school voluntarily when he was in 4th form but learned a skill in bodywork.

The pre-sentencing report suggested that Greene had underlying challenges and any sentence by the court should include psychological counselling to address those issues.

The court said the aggravating factors were the seriousness of the charges, the use of the weapons (stones/ rock) which were capable of causing serious injuries to the complainant and the degree of force used. Greene’s eight previous convictions were also considered.

The lack of planning, in what the court described as “spontaneous incidents”, was considered as a mitigating factor. His early guilty plea and remorse during his evidence were also considered in his favour.

However, the judge said the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones.

Giving the necessary discounts for time spent on remand and an early guilty plea, Greene will serve 468 days on the serious bodily harm charge and 224 days for the wounding offence.

The court ordered Greene to undergo anger management and conflict resolution programmes as well as enroll in educational, vocational or skills training classes to assist with employment on release.