An “opportunistic” thief from St Michael has been sentenced to two years in prison on cannabis and robbery charges.
However the sentence imposed by Magistrate Manila Renee today must take into account the 19 months that 24-year-old Dario Delisle Flatts, from Field Place Avenue, Bayville has already spent on remand at Dodds.
Flatts, who is known to the courts, pleaded guilty before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court to robbing Margarita Gumby of a cellular phone worth $1 000 and $50 cash on January 2, 2017.
He also took responsibility for the December 9, 2016 charge of stealing a backpack worth $130 containing a $300 passport, a $400 car key belonging to Marcel Maesson and a $100 backpack with a $300 passport inside belonging to Heather Mason as well as a $2 000 cellular phone and a $300 passport, the property of Alison Manzer.
He also admitted to charges of possession, possession with intent to supply and having a trafficable quantity of marijuana on October 8, 2019. The illegal substance weighed 23 grammes and had a $115 estimated street value.
Constable Kenmore Philips told Magistrate Renee that in relation to the first charge, Gumby had just gotten out of her vehicle along Hastings Main Road and was looking down. When she looked up, she came face-to-face with Flatts who grabbed her by her shirt, snatched her property and ran away.
In another matter, the Maessons and Manzer, were in the vicinity of Aquatic Gap, Bay Street, St Michael and they left their belongings unattended on the beach. They subsequently discovered the items missing. Nearby CCTV camera caught Flatts taking the property.
With respect to the cannabis charges police were travelling along Welches Road, St Michael when they saw Flatts driving by in the opposite direction. On seeing them however he tried to evade and turned onto another street but his progress was impeded by traffic.
The prosecutor said Flatts left the vehicle and the two other occupants who were travelling with him behind. A search of the vehicle revealed vegetable matter. The passengers in the motorcar denied knowledge of it.
Flatts subsequently turned himself in.
Today, his attorney-at-law Rasheed Belgrave told the court that his client ran in connection with the marijuana charges as he was “only human”.
“On seeing police and with a little weed in his possession he panicked and ran, but he turned himself in and faced the music taking responsibility for his actions,” the lawyer said.
He said while Flatts did not plead guilty on the first opportunity he did still throw himself at the mercy of the court.
Mitigating in his client’s favour, the attorney said, was the fact that it was a small quantity of the illegal substance and some time that had elapsed since the offence.
Belgrave argued that the robbery offences were not pre-planned or staged.
“It was just a lost teenager, not a mastermind… just crimes of opportunity.”
Belgrave further urged the court to consider sentencing Flatts to time served as he had already spent “19 months at Her Majesty’s hotel”.
He added: “Nineteen months spent in jail is equivalent to a sentence and we are urging the court to impose time served.”
However, Magistrate Renee said that sentence would not be considered given the nature of the offences. She then attached two-year sentences to each of the robbery charges to run concurrently.
For the cannabis charges he was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on the possession offence and reprimanded and discharged in relation to the other two offences.
Flatts will reappear before the court on July 27 in connection with another matter.
