A magistrate has told a Rillan Hill man who chopped a fellow villager in the face during an argument over the sale of marijuana to prepare to go to prison.
Senior Magistrate Tamika McKenzie gave the warning to Eldon Browne aka Buddy Boungce, 59, at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Feb. 10, as she set his sentencing for Monday.
Browne was initially charged on indictment that on Aug. 14, 2021, at Rillan Hill, he unlawfully and maliciously wounded Jelani Chance, of Rillan Hill.
However, the charge was reduced to a summary offence and his trial had begun when he changed his plea to guilty on Feb. 10.
The court heard that Chance, then 19, was in the habit of going to Browne’s house to buy marijuana.
Sometime between Aug. 11 and 12, 2021, he went to the house where Browne lives with his girlfriend, “Louvine” and asked to be sold two “spliffs” of marijuana but Browne said he did not have any.
Chance’s evidence was that he saw Browne selling marijuana to an unknown man at the house that same night.
Then sometime between 8 and 9 p.m., on Aug. 14, 2021, Chance went to Browne’s house to buy marijuana.
On arrival, he noticed the door was open but the curtain was drawn so he shouted “Buddy Boungce!” and “Louvine!”.
Browne came out and Chance asked him to sell him three marijuana spliffs for EC$5, the usual bargain price, as one spliff is sold for EC$2 and three for EC$5.
Chance told the court that he told Browne what he had observed on the previous occasion, in that Browne had refused to sell him marijuana but had told someone else.
It appears as though Browne got upset and started to talk loudly, saying that if he said he did not have any marijuana that was the case.
Chance responded, telling Browne that he was behaving as if someone wanted to rob him.
He further told Browne, “Watch the kind of house you living in. You selling weed and cocaine and behaving like you hard. Way you get for people rob you?”
Chance said Browne told him to go for his gun and he responded by asking him to go for gun for what as Browne had not done him anything.
Browne then told him to go out of his yard and he did not go because he was asking his girlfriend who was at the door to sell him the weeds.
Chance told the court that he was trying to avoid Browne because when Browne told him to go out of the yard, he saw Browne reaching for a cutlass.
He said he then asked Louvine to sell him the weed but he heard Browne telling Louvine not to.
Chance said he saw Browne come out of the house with a cutlass in his right hand, telling him to go out of his yard or he would “lick off my head”.
He said he did not move because he thought Louvine was coming back with the weed.
Then, suddenly, Browne swung the cutlass at him and chopped him to the left side of his face.
He described how he had run to three people’s houses trying to get help to go seek medical attention before a third village transported him to the hospital.
Chance underwent surgery that night for his injury.
Lawyers says defendant was trying to give ‘a friendly plan’
Browne’s lawyer, Grant Connell mitigated on his behalf but the court rejected his excessive self-defence argument, asking what was Browne defending himself against.
Connell read from Browne’s statement in which he said Chance had told him he must realise that he lives in a wooden house and he would burn it down.
“After he told me that, I buss out the house and pull the cutlass. I been go fuh plan him but the cutlass handle was kinda slippery…” the lawyer said, reading his client’s statement.
Connell said Browne was trying to give Chance “a friendly plan” but the cutlass hit him at the wrong angle, resulting in the injury.
He argued that there was lack of premeditation and significant provocation, adding that it was an isolated incident.
The lawyer acknowledged that his client had a criminal record before the court, but argued that it was “borderline spent.”.
However, the magistrate noted that the offence before the court was committed in 2021 and would not be borderline.
Connell said his client was of good character but the magistrate asked if that was the case with a chopping incident in the record.
Connell said his client had shown genuine remorse but the magistrate asked when, asking if it was between 2021 and then, while waiting for trial.
The magistrate said she had noted the lawyer’s submission but the court did not see the remorse.
Connell said that Browne be given the one-third discount for his guilty plea but the magistrate reminded him that the trial had begun and Browne had not spared Chance the agony of testifying about what had happened.
She said that the most discount that Browne could expect to receive was “maybe a little more” than 10%, noting that the investigating officer had to travel from Mayreau and was ready to testify when Browne changed his plea.
She said that even after the matter was called on the last occasion and Browne had heard the evidence, he was not moved to change his plea then.
Connell suggested that the court order compensation and issue a restraining order.
He asked that “in the unlikely event” that the magistrate was contemplating a custodial sentence it be suspended.
The SM said she would see where the sentence falls after the guidelines are applied.
VC asks for $20,000 compensation
Meanwhile, Chance told the court that the injury had affected him a lot, saying that his eyes were always “leaking”.
He said that when he is around “my girls” he always has to be wiping his eyes.
Chance said he cannot eat hard stuff or chew bones, telling the court that he likes to “chew my little turkey and stuff; the bones are sweet.”
He said his left eye cannot close properly, adding that he uses his hand to close it when he washes his hair and that it does not shut fully instinctively if something is about to fly into it.
He told the magistrate that if she looked closely, she would see a difference between both sides of his face.
The magistrate said that she was trying to see the difference and asked the virtual complainant to smile.
Chance told the court that the injury had robbed him of his “pretty boy” features.
He said he has to live with the effects of the injury for the rest of his life and told the court he wants Browne to be fined and confined “and a little compensation”.
Chance said that as regards compensation, he would “start with a 20”.
The magistrate asked him if he meant $20 and Chance said $20,000.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor, acting Sergeant of Police Shamrack Pierre said some provocation was evident but it was not significant provocation.
He also said that Browne had shown no remorse.
The prosecutor said that the sentencing guidelines were suggesting that Browne be sent to prison.
He, however, said he would agree with awarding compensation.
The magistrate, however, told Pierre that compensation comes after the punishment.