Woman jailed for beating man who told her prison is her home

A woman who beat up a man who remarked that jail is her home will spend two years and three months in prison.

Rakiesha Joseph aka Bim Bim, 27, of Layou, was serving a suspended prison sentence for a similar crime when she assaulted the man, John Mofford, outside the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) on Aug. 23.

Therefore, she could have been spending even more time behind bars had Senior Magistrate Tammika Mc Kenzie not ordered that her sentences run concurrently.

Joseph was the woman caught on video repeatedly stomping on Mofford outside MCMH on Aug. 23.

She pleaded guilty to a charge that she assaulted Mofford, causing actual bodily harm.

The facts, as presented at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, are that Mofford, of New Montrose, and Joseph know each other very well but are not friends.

On Aug. 23, about 5 p.m., Mofford was at the Leeward Bus Terminal, in Kingstown, when a young lady asked him to accompany her to MCMH because Joseph and another female had stabbed her in the head and she was feeling weak.

Mofford held on to the young lady’s hand and they began walking toward MCMH.

When they arrived at the gas station next to the hospital, Joseph and another woman — whose name Mofford did not know — came from behind them.

Mofford told the injured woman not to pay the other women any mind and remarked that jail is Joseph’s home.

Joseph struck Mofford above the right eye, causing him to fall to the ground.

She and the other woman whose name Mofford did not know began to beat him with their hand and kick him about the body while he was on the ground.

Joseph then caught a van and left the scene.
Mofford reported the matter to the police and PC 927 Patrick conducted an investigation, which resulted in Joseph being charged.

In mitigation, Joseph told the court that she has two children — a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl — and was frustrated when she assaulted Mofford.

She told the court that the last time she went to prison, her daughter stayed with her mother, who drinks rum and the child was not going to school.

She said the Social Welfare Department had to intervene as the grandmother was taking the child to the rum shop.

Joseph told the court she did not want that to happen to the child again as she does not have anyone else to take care of the child.

The magistrate told her that the Social Welfare Department should intervene if that is the case.

Joseph asked to be placed on a bond.

“It ain’t happening. Remember the last time you stood in that box. not the last time, the time before that for stabbing the officer?” the magistrate told Joseph.

She reminded Joseph that she was convicted of that offence in October 2024, and her sentence included a prison term of one year and four months, suspended for one and a half years.

Mc Kenzie told Joseph this meant that she was going to prison regardless of the sentence imposed on her for assaulting Mofford.

The defendant asked for a last chance but the magistrate told her the law did not allow her to give a last chance.

The magistrate activated the suspended sentence, sending Joseph to prison for one year and four months.

As regards Joseph’s crime against Mofford, the prosecutor, Sergeant Shamrack Pierre, noted that the maximum sentence is five years in prison.

Mofford had told the court that he did not want compensation and the court could do with Joseph as it wished.

In handing down the sentence, the magistrate said:

“This seems to be what you like to do. Within the last 10 years, you have had four antecedents, the last two of them, you seem to be getting off with a lot of compensation, so that is probably what is motivating you to continue. This is your third offence of this type.”

Joseph is among six people before the court on indictable charges related to the alleged robbery of a credit union and attempted murder of a man in South Rivers.