Declaring that illegal firearms are not to be “trifled” with, Justice Randall Worrell has slapped a hefty fine on a St George man for weapons possession, saying the man “could still be saved”.
Malcolm Alexander Sealy now has six months to pay a combined $22,500 fine if he wants to avoid more jail time.
If Sealy fails to pay the fine to the Supreme Court he will return to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds and serve the remainder of an eight-year starting sentence for possession of an illegal 9mm semi-automatic pistol and eight rounds of ammunition.
Police were on duty along South District, St George on June 21, 2019 when they observed Sealy sitting under a shed among a group of men with his right hand on his waist. When he noticed the police approaching, he took off running and led officers on a prolonged chase in the area before entering the basement of a house and trying to discard the weapon.
It was retrieved and Sealy was subdued as he again tried to make his escape. As officers searched him, a holster was discovered attached to his waist for which he was asked to account.
Sealy said:” I find this in the dump”. When asked about the black firearm that was found, he replied: “That ain’t mine.”
But appearing before Justice Randall Worrell recently he said: “Truthfully sir I purchased it for protection . . . one of my friends went missing . . . and I had it for my protection because we used to be together every day.”
In handing down the sentence during a virtual sitting of the court, Justice Worrell stated that the offences committed by Sealy merited a custodial sentence.
The judge said: “Those are serious offences. Possession of a firearm is very serious in Barbados. There have been amnesties, persons have been asked to turn in firearms, these are things that the Court would have to take into consideration. It cannot trifle with firearms.”
He said that having listened to Sealy’s attorney Kamisha Benjamin and the prosecutor, Crown Counsel Keith Robertson the court was of the opinion that a starting point of eight years in prison would meet the justice of the case.
Making reference to the mitigating and aggravating features of the offence, Justice Worrell said that there were more mitigating factors relating to Sealy than there were aggravating.
The High Court judge said the fact that Sealy had no previous convictions, cooperated with police to an extent and asked for his case to be fast tracked to the High Court all go in his favour as it would appear that “you are someone who can still be saved”.
Given those factors, the judge shaved off two years of the eight-year starting point leaving Sealy with six years. From that time he was given credit for his guilty plea – which is a one-third discount resulting in four years or 1,460 days in prison.
Sealy who listened to his sentence from HMP Dodds was told that counsel on both sides had indicated that given that he had already spent 874 days on remand “there may be no point in further incarcerating you and the court takes that into consideration”.
That deduction left Sealy with a sentence of 586 to serve in prison.
For the possession of the firearm, Justice Worrell imposed a fine of $15,000 and for possession of the ammunition $7,500.
The sums must be paid in six months failing which Sealy will spend 586 days in prison on each count to run concurrently.
“This is the first time that you had a brush with the law try to pull yourself together,” the judge advised the convicted man.
