Hefty fines instead of more jail time for remorseful armed teen

After an alleged encounter with “some men”, a teenager believed his best option was to arm himself with a loaded 9mm pistol.

But Aaron Christian Hollis Sherlon Evelyn, 19, was told that he would have to pay $30,000 in fines for the illegal arms and bullets if he wants to avoid spending another three years, 195 days in HMP Dodds.

“I would like to apologize to the court. I want to know if I can get a second chance. I would like to get home to my child,” Evelyn told High Court judge Justice Randall Worrell on Wednesday afternoon as he addressed the No. 2 Supreme Court.

“You didn’t know that when you had the firearm?” the judge asked the gun offender.

“I wasn’t thinking,” he replied.

Evelyn revealed that he had lost his 15-year-old brother three months before he was remanded for the offence and wanted “to go home and make wrong things right”.

Crown Counsel Keith Robertson told the court that police executed a search warrant at an apartment where he was staying at Ocean View Road, Spooners Hill, St Michael. On their arrival he was sitting on a chair and told of the officers’ reason for being there.

Evelyn then explained to the officers that after being confronted by some men, he had knowledge of where a gun had been “stashed” and retrieved it.

Under caution he was asked for the weapon and told police that it was in a bag hooked on the door.

The prosecutor said the weapon – a black pistol with a wooden handle – was retrieved. When asked to account for the gun and the ammunition found in the magazine he replied: “I take that off somebody stash. That was in the gun that was off the stash.”

In speaking on Evelyn’s behalf, defence counsel Simon Clarke argued that no use had been made of the weapon and his client had no intention of using it. “In his statement he said that he didn’t even know how to use the firearm, he was just frightened,” Clarke submitted.

But Robertson disagreed, adding that Evelyn had indicated that he needed the gun to protect himself.

The Crown prosecutor argued: “He knew exactly where to find a loaded firearm and kept it instead of giving it to police. It can be inferred that he intended to defend himself with that firearm. The ammunition was also loaded in the firearm . . . which would infer that he would have used the ammunition if needed to defend himself.”

The opposing counsels at least agreed on the mitigating and aggravating factors of the case but were at odds on the fine that should be imposed on Evelyn who was assessed at being at a medium risk of reoffending.

The defence suggested that a $15,000 fine for the gun and $10,000 for the ammunition would meet justice  but the Crown countered with s $25,000 fine for the weapon and $10,000 for the ammunition.

In handing down his ruling Justice Worrell pointed to the young age of the offender, his good record – he had one prior conviction – his cooperation with police and his expression of remorse.

The judge then imposed a starting sentence of eight years in prison for the offences. From that a two-year discount was credited for the mitigating and aggravating factors as well as a one-third discount for his guilty plea and the time, 170 days, he had spent on remand at Dodds. That left Evelyn with three years, 195 days left to serve.

But after assessing the means of the young offender and speaking to his parents under oath, Justice Worrell said a fine would suffice in Evelyn’s case. He set $20,000 for the gun which must be paid in eight months or Evelyn must spend the alternative on three years, 195 days at Dodds.

He was fined a further $10,000 for the ammunition with the same conditions.