Time served and second chance for young gun offender

Tears of joy flowed in the No. 4A Supreme Court after a man convicted of illegal firearm and ammunition charges was deemed to have served his time for the offences.

Tresanne Deangelo Goodridge walked out of the dock and into the warm embrace of relatives and friends after Madam Justice Wanda Blair read the sentence.

The Chapman Street, The City resident had pleaded guilty to having a firearm without a licence and 13 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit and to four counts of unlawful assault, on May 5, 2021.

On that day, police officers, acting on information received, went to Chapman Lane, St Michael. They saw several men running as they approached, including Goodridge who ran from the gallery of a house with what appeared to be a gun in his jacket pocket. While running, he took the gun from his pocket and refused to drop it when ordered to do so. As the police got about seven metres from where he was, Goodridge pointed the gun in their direction. A police officer, fearing for his safety, discharged his weapon, wounding Goodridge in the hip. After he fell to the ground, the police retrieved the gun, which contained 13 bullets. Goodridge received treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for his injury.

He told the police that two months before being arrested, he had been at a cockfight when police conducted a raid, and someone who was fleeing had dropped the gun, and he picked it up.

Justice Blair accepted the aggravating and mitigating factors of the offences as outlined by Principal State Counsel Joyann Catwell and defence counsel Shadia Simpson—that the firearm was in a public place, that Goodridge pointed it at police officers, and that he disregarded commands for him to stop; and that the firearm was recovered and no officers or innocent bystanders were hurt.

Goodridge’s previously clean criminal record, his early guilty plea, his age at the time of the offence – 19, his expression of remorse, his pre-sentence report and the positive testimonies of his character witnesses all worked in his favour.

Starting at nine years imprisonment for the firearm and ammunition offences and two years for the assault offences, Justice Blair gave a two-year discount for the mitigating factors, and deducted one-third for his guilty plea, 1 485 days for his time spent on remand and three months for delay. The convicted man was therefore sentenced to time served on all counts.

“Mr. Goodridge, you are fortunate that you escaped with only a hip injury on the night in question. From all accounts, you were considered to be a decent young man who was very helpful to both family and friends. Yet you ended up before these courts because you not only found a loaded firearm, —if your story is to be believed—but you kept it for two months and you were walking around with it like an accessory in your pocket! I don’t know why you would have literally walked around and picked up trouble. You saw men running and dropping guns because the police were pursuing them, and you picked up a gun and walked away? You did not expect the police would have found you one day? I hope the time you spent in custody has taught you a valuable lesson.

“You have pledged to keep out of trouble, if given a chance. The ball is in your court. You should learn a trade that will help you to take care of yourself and your family and be a productive member of this society. The sight of your poor 90-year-old grandmother limping into this court to be a character witness should be enough to ensure you do not put her through any more stress,” Justice Blair told Goodridge.