Fast-track plea

A young man facing gun and ammunition charges made an application for his matters to be fast-tracked to the High Court on his first appearance before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

“Ma’am, I can beg for a paper committal to go to the High Court? I don’t want to waste the court’s time. I am willing to plead guilty, Ma’am,” Kerrie Shaquille Thompson said to Magistrate Alison Burke.

The 27-year-old labourer of Block 14 Field Place, Bayville, St Michael made the comment after the magistrate informed him that he could not plead to the indictable charge of having a firearm in his possession on December 31, 2022, without a valid licence to do so.

When the second charge was read – having possession of five rounds of ammunition on the same date without a valid permit – Thompson reiterated, “I willing to plead guilty pun this here too, Ma’am”.

He wasted no time in pleading guilty to a third charge of resisting Police Constable Amos Devonish in the execution of his duties on the same date.

Prosecutor Ralph Rollock said Thompson was seen in an area acting suspiciously. When approached by police he ran, was pursued and apprehended. When informed of the reason he was being held and arrested, he resisted the officer.

Explaining his actions to the magistrate, Thompson, a first-time offender, stated: “The honest to God truth, I is a young man, Ma’am, and I went down the wrong way…. I was incarcerated for a couple of days and right now I study my head, Ma’am, and I say ‘I went wrong, Ma’am’. I would like another chance at life, Ma’am. I am a young, disciplined man; I does work too and I have livestock outside.”

Following his mitigation, Magistrate Burke reprimanded and discharged Thompson on the resisting charge and remanded him to Dodds on the gun and ammunition charges until February 3.

“Ma’am, that’s why I begging for a paper committal so I can go High Court and plead guilty one time, Ma’am,” the accused repeated.

Thompson was assured that the process would be facilitated.