Ch Ch man to pay $5 000 for four bullets

The habitual excuse used by young men convicted of illegal weapon possession that they found them in quarries has left a High Court judge bewildered.

So much so that Justice Carlisle Greaves has described the abandoned limestone mines as the “eighth wonder of the world” as he sentenced Zico Anderson Blackman.

The judge said: “This court is particularly concerned about the constant involvement of our youth, particularly our young men, with both ammunition and firearms.

“The often excuse that they found them is bewildering and so often that they found them in a quarry is really the Eighth Wonder of the World.

“Barbadian quarries have been known to be useful for the mining of one product and that has been limestone. But it seems that the youth have discovered another resource that is ammunition and firearms.

“Question is, what else may be hidden in our quarries not yet discovered?”

Blackman, 25, from Fairview Tenantry, Christ Church pleaded guilty to having four rounds of ammunition on August 5, 2017.

Police, acting on information, went to his home and the four rounds of .22 ammunition were found wrapped in paper in a stove.

“Them is mine. I find them in a quarry,” he told police at the time. He was arrested and taken to a police station where he further said: “I don’t want to give no statement, I admit the bullet belongs to me.”

Senior Crown Counsel Neville Watson told the No. 3 Supreme Court in a virtual sitting that Blackman’s crime had reached the threshold for a custodial sentence. But he said the Crown was not seeking jail time because a fine would meet justice in the circumstances.

The prosecutor pointed to the aggravating features of the offence, namely the possession of the live rounds of ammunition, that Blackman had no permit for the bullets, his deliberate intention to have them and the prevalence of such offences in society.

Mitigating, he said, were that the bullets were recovered and were found at the convict’s residence and not in public and that he pleaded guilty and cooperated with police.

Given those factors, the Crown recommended a fine of $5,000 be imposed on Blackman and in default, that he be jailed three years.

“I apologise to you and the court. After this you won’t be seeing me again hopefully before you or any other court,” said Blackman as he briefly addressed Justice Greaves who agreed with the Crown’s submissions on sentencing.

After conducting an analysis of Blackman’s means, the judge imposed the $5,000 fine. Of that amount, $1,000 had to be paid immediately and the remaining $4,000 in four months.

In default Blackman would be required to spend three years in prison, the judge ordered. Justice Greaves imposed a starting sentence of five years in prison. The time he had spent on remand was credited along with a one-third discount for his guilty plea.

“It is left to assume that a man who has bullets must or may have a firearm as well. It would be my advice to you young man that if you also have a firearm you should get rid of it. I would advise that you surrender it to the police,” the judge told Blackman, who was represented by attorney-at-law Albert Sealy.