The three Dorsetshire Hill burglars who were remanded in custody over the Easter period to help them remember what they did with some stolen jewellery have had their sentencing adjourned again.
On Tuesday, when Raja Clarke, 23, Rodd Greaves, 21, and Joel Gill, 20, were to be sentenced at the Serious Offences Court, Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche rose saying that the Crown was in possession of new information.
He said that police had learnt that Clarke had taken some of the stolen jewellery to Fusion, a pawnshop in Kingstown, but the proprietor did not enter into a transaction with him.
“Raja, way yo’ do wid de people thing?” “Raja, Raja, oh, Raja, way yo’ do wid de people thing Delplesche asked the man who last week referred to the crime as “going pon food”.
This also did not elicit any useful information from the man six days after they pleaded guilty to a burglary charge and were remanded into custody.
Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne Matthias who last Wednesday said she was amenable to accept the prosecution’s suggestion of suspended sentences for Gill and Greaves, noted to the men that they could be jailed for up to 14 years.
She told the accused men that they should not think that she is not considering imposing harsh sentences on all three of them.
At this point, Delplesche noted that Section 19 of the Criminal Procedure Code, gives the magistrate the authority, given Clarke’s antecedents to send him to the High Court for sentencing.
“Yes. And I’m considering all of that,” the magistrate said, telling the men that she likes the range of sentencing that the High Court has to offer.
“I don’t care who first time, who ain’t have nothing against them. Everybody involved and you will all bear the weight for one person who wants to be funny,” she said.
Clarke, the only of the three who has a criminal history, maintained that Fusion had bought the jewellery from him.
The magistrate said that what is worse is when business establishments buy stolen items, and, if that is the case, say they have not received them.
“Like alyo didn’t need a short sharp shock. You need an extended stay of rehabilitation elsewhere,” she said, referring to prison.
She further said that while Gill was just 20 years old, his answers to some of the questions that police routinely ask as part of their interview suggested that he “hasn’t been applying yourself either in your books.
“So you had too much time free when you should at least have been trying to apply yourself in school,” she said.
The chief magistrate said: “needless to say that the fact that the jewellery isn’t recovered isn’t looking good and I am considering all sentencing options at this time.”
She further remanded the men until Friday.
“By then, for sure, you will be dealt with one way or the other; all three of you. The lesson is: choose your company wisely,” the magistrate said.
The men had initially told the court that they had thrown away the jewellery — some gold and some gold-plated — after they were told that they were fake.
The trio last Wednesday pleaded guilty to a charge that on March 1, 2018 at Dorsetshire Hill, they entered the house of Mitra Malcolm of Dorsetshire Hill as trespassers and stole one silver Sony Vaio laptop, value EC$1,250; a quantity of gold and gold-plated jewellery, value EC$3,150, the property of Dulrie Malcolm of Dorsetshire Hill; two black Lenovo laptops, value, EC$7,346, two black hard drives, value US$115, two small Sony cameras, value US$130; two black mag lights, value EC$450; one Dremel Multi-Max Tool Kit, value US$109.99; and a quantity of thumb drives, value EC$250, the property of Mitra Malcolm of Dorsetshire Hill.
Some of the items were recovered.