Teen imprisoned for breaching earlier order

A teenager appeared in court on a criminal damage charge but ended with a six-month prison sentence for failing to adhere to a probation order imposed last year.

Nineteen-year-old Justin Shamar Greene, of Ridgeway, Pine, St Michael pleaded guilty to unlawfully damaging two louvre panes belonging to Ernest Lynton on February 8.

Sergeant Vernon Waithe told Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes that Greene and his brother were involved in a dispute on the day when he threw a number of rocks at his sibling. The missiles hit the louvres, belonging to Lynton, his stepfather, damaging them.

“I throw the rock at my brother and it break the window. I didn’t mean to lick out the window or nothing so,” Greene said when asked whether he had anything to say regarding his actions.

However, during that time a probation officer informed the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court that an order had been made in July 2020 for the now-convicted teen to complete a year of probation in connection with another matter which carried an alternative sentence of six months in prison.

The officer said while Greene turned up for the pre-sentencing report, he never returned to the Probation Department to start probation despite calls and as such was in breach.

Given the previous order, the Chief Magistrate had no choice but to sentence Greene to six months in prison on the breach of the probation order. On the criminal damage charge he was sentenced to three months in prison which will run concurrently to the breach.