Man facing sentencing after pleading guilty to using Glock to threaten woman during lovers’ quarrel

An altercation with his then girlfriend in which he used a firearm to threaten and intimidate resulted in a 32-year-old St Michael man being on remand at Dodds for the past 801 days.

Kemar Devere Sharan Rudder, from Block 2F Farm Road, Deacons and his former partner were involved in an argument on August 7, 2019.

He had visited the woman’s apartment located at Brighton, St Michael, retrieved the weapon from where it had been hidden and demanded that she unlock her cellular phone.

He then began to psychically assault her. When she informed him that he was hurting her, Rudder replied: “You still have to unlock the f*****g phone”.

She did so and he went through the device as he questioned her about former boyfriends. When she did not answer he withdrew the firearm from his waist and pointed it at her feet demanding that she answer. He then pushed the weapon at her lip causing it to bleed. He assaulted her further, before leaving the woman’s apartment with her keys and cellular phone.

He returned sometime later with the phone and keys and placed the weapon back in the wardrobe from where he had first removed it and left the residence.

The woman called the police, reported the matter and informed them about the firearm, Crown Counsel Keith Robertson told the No. 2 Supreme Court today as he read the facts.

Police responded and the weapon was seen. Rudder was arrested at his home and transported to the woman’s apartment. Sixteen rounds of ammunition were in the magazine and three more were in a plastic bag.

“It is mine,” he said when asked to account for the illegal weapon. “I get catch red-handed so I gine take the charge,” he added.

Last week he pleaded guilty before High Court judge Justice Randall to having the 9mm Glock pistol and 19 rounds of ammunition in his possession.

“I apologise to the court and to the Royal Barbados Police Force . . . and I am asking you to be lenient with me sir,” Rudder said as he also issued an apology to the then girlfriend.

Defence Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens in mitigating on Rudder’s behalf during a virtual sitting of the court this morning put forward a case for him to pay a fine.

She pointed to the aggravating features of his case saying that the firearm was used to intimidate the woman and it had appeared that “a dangerous weapon” had been kept at that location for some time.

Mitchell-Gittens said going in his favour was the fact that he cooperated with police and had no prior convictions for similar offences.

In his submissions on sentencing Robertson revealed that Rudder had one prior conviction for burglary. He said while the now convicted man did not give police a written statement he had answered several questions which he also refused to initial in one of the investigator’s notebook .

The Crown Counsel submitted that Rudder was found with a high calibre weapon which was used to threaten and intimidate the woman in a “lovers’ quarrel”.

Robertson said during the investigations, Rudder stated that he acquired the weapon to protect himself from other individuals who had killed his brother back in January 2019 and subsequently threatened to kill him.

“Instead of going to the police the now convicted man decided to take matters into his own hands and acquire a firearm,” Robertson said, adding that the ammunition was live.

Mitigating, he said was that Rudder had pleaded guilty, and cooperated with police to a certain extent.

The Crown’s representative submitted that a starting sentence of nine years in prison should be considered in Rudder’s case but said another year should be added – bringing it to ten years – as the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating features. The necessary deductions he said could be made leaving the convict with a seven-year sentence, minus the time he had spent on remand.

However, Robertson agreed that a fine would suffice in Rudder’s case. He put forward a case for a $20 000 fine for the gun to be paid in three months and $18 000 for the ammunition to be paid in six months. Failure to pay the amounts would result in the seven-year sentence, minus time spent on remand.

A means test on payment of a fine is to be conducted by Justice Worrell before sentencing.