While Barbados’ Penal Reform Act stipulates that a person’s age should be taken into account when a court considers sentencing, a judge is of the view that should not hold much weight, especially when it comes to gun-related matters.
“Taking into account the current environment in this island and perhaps many around the Caribbean, many countries of the Commonwealth and the world, it is not the old men who are arming themselves with firearms and causing the menace to our society that has become so rampant. It is the young men who are doing it,” Justice Carlisle Greaves stated as he considered submissions on sentencing made by convicted gunman Carl Leslie Hinds Jr’s attorney Safiya Moore.
The judge imposed a $15,000 fine on Hinds, of Lodge Crescent, Lodge Hill, St Michael, after he pleaded guilty to possession of a .22 revolver and four rounds of ammunition. The loaded gun was found in a manhole in the ceiling of his residence when police executed a search warrant there on March 27, 2019.
He was 19 years old at the time of the offence and his lawyer told the court to consider that a mitigating factor when imposing sentence.
But the High Court judge explained that the message had long been in the public domain and everyone should have heard to “put down the firearms or the consequences may be severe”.
“So I am unable to give any real discount because he was 19,” he said.
The judge, however, took into consideration that it was Hinds’ effort and that of his attorney that had resulted in the case coming before the court as quickly as it had.
The first-time gun offender was given credit for that as well as for the 1,079 days he had spent on remand at Dodds, and a one-third discount for his guilty plea.
Justice Greaves then acceded to the submissions by the defence that a forthwith $10 000 fine be imposed for possession of the firearm charge and $5 000 for the four rounds of ammunition, to be paid in three months with the alternative of two years in prison.
He took into consideration that the type of firearm was on the lower end and in poor working condition, according to the firearm expert, as well as the fact that the gun was not found on the streets and had been recovered.
“I have been urged to consider the difficulty with which the defendant is faced in raising these funds. It has been a family effort and that is one of the considerations that these courts continue to take into account. Because the reality is that many of these young men who choose to put themselves in trouble, particularly with firearms, have no money and it is their parents . . . who have to go around trying to raise the funds from other family members and friends,” Justice Greaves said.
The judge said this, in turn, recruits family members to assist the courts by applying pressure on the convicted men “to steer them away from crime and particularly crimes involving firearms”.
Acting Senior Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett who prosecuted the case had submitted that the court impose an eight-year starting sentence. He however suggested that be increased by one year given the aggravating factors of the offence outweighed the mitigating factors, following which deductions should be given for the time he had spent on remand, and his guilty plea.
The prosecutor, however, was not opposed to the imposition of a fine, if the court was so minded.
Justice Greaves agreed with the prosecutor’s suggested starting sentence but said there were no aggravating factors that would result in the increase of the starting point.
“Young man, you have been given an opportunity to fly right. For a long time, you have not been performing as you should. Your probation report suggests that you had problems in school even though you were good enough to pass your Common Entrance and go on to a school with a great foundation.
“You need to get back to school. Get up and go back to school to get something in your head, stop smoking de dope. You get one chance; don’t come back because the law is clear – if you get convicted for a second firearm offence, jail is sure and big . . . and you better spread the gospel around to those . . . who doing foolishness,” the judge told Hinds.
