Two men convicted for having guns and ammunition, in two separate cases, were ordered by the court to pay almost $40 000 in fines, some immediately.
In one case, Lavon Renaldo Godwin Alleyne had to fork over $10 000 to the High Court on Tuesday to avoid spending the next two years in prison for gun and ammunition possession.
The Bottom Close, Wildey, St Michael resident reappeared in Supreme Court No. 2 before Justice Randall Worrell, where he was ordered to pay the hefty fine forthwith for being in possession of a .22 short calibre revolver on November 6, 2015, without a valid licence. Alleyne had also admitted to having five rounds of ammunition without a valid permit on the same date.
Highlighting the seriousness of the offence, Justice Worrell said the mitigating factors – Alleyne having no previous convictions, his youth at the time of the offence, that no one was injured in the recovery of the gun, and a lack of evidence that the firearm had been used to commit any crimes – outweighed the aggravating factors.
Deeming a starting point of six years for both offences appropriate, the judge deducted two years for the mitigating factors. Then he gave discounts for the convicted man’s early guilty plea, the eight-year delay in the matter getting to trial, and his time spent in custody.
“The six months you spent on remand should have shown you the error of your ways…. It was an act of stupidity on your part to have a firearm,” Justice Worrell told Alleyne.
In addition to the $10 000 forthwith fine for the firearm, Alleyne has until March 31, 2024 to pay $5 000 for having the ammunition. Failure to pay the latter amount will result in him spending 614 days in Dodds Prison.
In the other matter, Nikolas Ishmael Raheem Hall of No. 1 Halls Village, St James was fined $20 000 for having a .32 revolver and $3 000 for possession of six rounds of ammunition, when he reappeared before Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell in the No. 4 Supreme Court on Monday.
He had pleaded guilty to the December 4, 2017 offences earlier this year.
The court heard that while at the traffic lights on Husbands Road, St James, police saw a motorcycle coming from Clermont Road with a helmet-less pillion rider. They said the man was continually pulling at his crotch area rather than holding on. The police signalled to the driver to stop, but he instead mounted the embankment, and the pillion rider jumped off and ran in a southerly direction towards Hinds Hill. The driver rode off.
The pillion rider, who was later identified as Hall, tried to make his way through some overgrown bushes but fell, and a gun fell from him.
He admitted to the police that he got the firearm from a cock-fight in Orange Hill. He declined to give a written statement.
Justice Smith-Bovell considered the aggravating factors of the offence, noting the seriousness of the offence, that Hall had come into possession of the firearm during the illegal activity of cock-fighting, and that he was also found with drugs when he was arrested.
She added that his remorse, early guilty plea, and lack of previous convictions were mitigating factors.
The judge said that the court was satisfied that a non-custodial sentence was appropriate.
Giving a starting point of eight years, the judge deducted time for his early guilty plea, the delay in the matter being brought to trial, and the time Hall had spent on remand.
Hall, who had been represented by Senior Counsel Arthur Holder, was ordered by the judge to pay $12 000 forthwith for the gun, with the balance to be settled in six months, while the fine for the ammo must be paid in nine months.
Failure to pay either fine will result in Hall spending two years and 140 days behind bars.
State Counsel Kevin Forde prosecuted the matter.
