Drayton jailed for nine more years

Dario Devon Drayton will be behind bars for nine more years as punishment for committing several offences, including aggravated burglary, theft and assault.

The Turton Gap, Gittens Road, Government Hill, St Michael resident was sentenced when he appeared in the No. 2 Supreme Court before Justice Randall Worrell recently.
He had previously admitted to stealing a motorcycle belonging to Jamal Moseley between August 30 and 31, 2009; robbing Leon Weekes of a chain and a cell phone belonging to him, and robbing Asif Padmore of two chains on November 20, 2012;  robbing Junior Clarke of two chains and two pendants belonging to him and causing serious bodily harm to Clarke with intent to maim, injure or disable him, on January 17, 2013; robbing Danielle Bullen of her motorcar, a handbag, cell phone, Barbados identification card, a purse and $1 500 belonging to her, all valued at $33 093, on July 7, 2017; and assaulting Julian Lashley with intent to rob him on July 7, 2017.

Calling all the offences serious, Justice Worrell pointed in particular to the injuries inflicted on Clarke, whom Drayton had shot during the robbery, and imposed a starting sentence of 20 years for the offence. The judge increased that to 25 years after taking into consideration the use of a firearm in the incident, the fact that the gun was not recovered and that the complainant suffered was now “virtually paralysed”.

Though noting the convicted man’s age at the time of the offence and his expression of remorse, Justice Worrell pointed to his 21 previous convictions and his “very bad” pre-sentence report which deemed him as posing a high risk of re-offending.

“You seem to have been bent on theft and burglary, especially taking stuff from people. I can’t find any mitigating features which would cause me to move the starting point downward from 25 years,” the judge said.

However, he gave Drayton a discount for his early guilty plea and the delay in the matter going to trial and also deducted the 1 661 days he had spent on remand.

He now has to serve nine more years for the serious bodily harm offence.

A starting point of 12 years was given for the robbery and after various discounts, Drayton has 119 days left to serve for that crime.

Meanwhile, starting sentences of 12 years each were given for the robberies of Weekes and Padmore and after the relevant deductions, Drayton was ordered to serve a remaining 117 days on each count.

Concerning the car and motorcycle theft, the judge outlined that appropriate starting points were nine years and six years, respectively.

However, he told Drayton that after the deductions, the time he spent on remand would be subsumed in the sentences.

All of the sentences will run concurrently.

Drayton was represented by attorney Fay Burke, while Principal State Counsel Oliver Thomas and State Counsel Dr Zoe King appeared for the prosecution.