Prosecutor suggests jailtime for men convicted of theft, putting hit on victim

Submissions by defence attorneys that two men be given suspended sentences for their roles in a “nefarious” crime that involved a hit being placed on a woman after they stole her money, have been rejected by the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.

And while it will not be until May 5 that Alliston Seale tells the court what sentence he believes the men should get, he suggested on Wednesday they should spend time behind bars.

“This matter is one hitherto unknown in Barbados . . . . This has all the trappings of a suspense thriller, a novel, and I am sure that a movie can one day be made of this. This is exceptionally serious,” he said as he questioned how the men’s attorneys could see the crime, which he described as “sophisticated” at every level, as warranting non-custodial sentences.

Seale was addressing Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell when the case of Kevin Dacosta Cadogan, of Arthur’s Seat, St Thomas; Kirk St Clair White, of Jackson Main Road, St Michael; and Adrian Drakes, of White Hill Village, Shop Hill, St Michael, continued before the No. 4 Supreme Court.

Drakes and White both pleaded guilty to conduct endangering the life of a female pensioner, placing her in danger of death or serious bodily harm on August 24, 2011; while Drakes was separately charged with use of a firearm. White and Cadogan also admitted to theft of money and money laundering.

The money crimes involved the theft of $290 000 and $22 960 belonging to the Bank of Nova Scotia, between August 1 and October 31, 2011; as well as engaging in transactions totalling $312 960, the proceeds of crime.

After outlining all the mitigating and aggravating factors of the crime committed by their clients who are first-time offenders, Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley who along with attorneys Simon Clarke and Ken Mason represented White, and defence counsel Sade Harris who appeared for Cadogan, amicus curiae, urged the court to be lenient and to temper justice with mercy by imposing non-custodial sentences in the form of suspended sentences.

Drakes, who was the shooter in the matter and is representing himself, had made his submissions on sentencing at a previous sitting of the court.

While agreeing that justice needs to be tempered with mercy, the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions said “justice still means justice for all”.

He said the case could not be individualised or particularised but must be treated as a whole.

“It is by treating it as a whole that you see the depravity of the actions of the convicted men, whatever role they may have played and the roles that are before the court.

“When the defence seeks to speak about non-custodial sentences, it really causes me to wonder, notwithstanding their respective duty to their clients . . . how can one reasonably look at this situation and believe that an individual should be allowed to remain free, basically; that this does not reach the threshold of a custodial sentence?” he submitted to the court.

In summarising the facts of the crime, Seale agreed with defence attorney Harris that this was an “exceptional case”, adding that in his almost 20 years at the Bar he had never come across a matter of this nature.

He said that the woman went to the United States and England to work and repatriated her money to Barbados for her retirement.

Having done that, Seale stated, “she goes to the bank and after having had well over a quarter of a million dollars, she discovers she has $28. That is an instant heart attack and death for some people . . . . One could imagine the trauma that came upon her . . . . But that is the beginning of this story, that is not the end.”

According to Seale, after the bank launched an investigation into the matter, the elderly woman discovered a note on her step, which basically stated: “We took your money, we would like to pay it back.”

However, after conversing with one of the culprits over the phone, she told them to speak to the police, and it was when the men realised they were in danger of discovery that they “upped the ante”.

“So, we go and look for an assassin, we look for a man that is high and strung out on drugs . . . a hitman . . . somebody who will do this job. Here it is we know a man who is . . . willing to do anything for the next fix . . . . He is told that there is a job for you and there is some money involved and he is willing to do anything,” Seale said as he summarized the facts of the case.

Drakes, who was regarded as a ‘parro’, was subsequently given a gun. He went to the woman’s house,having been transported there, but she did not come outside.

The pensioner, who was standing behind a wrought iron window, subsequently discovered that her finger was bleeding after Drakes said he “let go a frighten shot”.

“The shot struck the wrought iron and hit her hand. That could have lodged in the woman’s cranium, in her chest, she could have been dead,” Seale said.

“That nefarious activity is nothing short of putting a hit on the woman who, after you stole her money and [when] it was discovered, you decide that you will get rid of her. Fortunately, she is still alive . . . . This is a matter that one cannot take lightly. . . . This is a matter at every level, whether you look at it as endangering life; whether you look at it as use of firearm; whether you look at it for the theft or for the money laundering, each and every one of these matters before the court, in my humble submission, speaks of a custodial sentence,” the prosecutor insisted.