$20 000 in fines for gunman

Rashon Tyrell Raheem Burke has been slapped with $20 000 in fines for having a gun and ammunition.

When the 23-year-old resident of Fairy Valley, Christ Church appeared in the No. 3 Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Carlisle Greaves ruled that he pay $15 000 forthwith for having a .22 pistol on November 4, 2021, or be imprisoned for four years, five months.

He was also fined $5 000 for five rounds of ammunition, $2 000 of which was to be paid immediately, with the balance due in three months. The alternative was four years in prison.

Prosecutor State Counsel Treann Knight told the court that police executed a warrant at Burke’s home around 3:05 a.m. on the date mentioned, and he was found sleeping in his bedroom. During the search, they discovered a haversack between the bed and a playpen, and that bag contained one firearm.

Burke told officers the gun was not his.

“Someone gave me the bag. I didn’t know the gun was in the bag. I went and borrow the bag to go to work the same morning wunna come for me,” he said, telling the officers that he had gotten it from a “friend”.

Knight noted that the mitigating factors, including the gun being recovered and the lack of evidence that it had been used in a crime, outweighed the aggravating factor, which was that the firearm was in working order. Regarding the offender, Knight considered Burke’s early guilty plea, the time spent on remand, and that while he had six previous convictions, none was similar to this one.

The prosecutor submitted that an appropriate sentence would be a $15 000 forthwith fine for the firearm and $5 000 for the ammo, payable in three months, with the alternative of four years and five months in prison.

Telling Burke that he now had eight convictions to his name, Justice Greaves warned the convicted man not to return to court.

“Young man, I giving you a chance, use it wisely. I bent over backwards to try not to lock you up. Stop causing your father so much pain,” he added.