By LR LiburdThe St. Kitts-Nevis Observer
Many citizens and residents in St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as some members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, are appalled by the one-month jail sentence imposed on a young man by a Chief Magistrate for illegal possession of a 9mm Beretta Pistol and illegal possession of 11 rounds of matching ammunition.
On Friday (Jun. 10), 24-year-old Kylon Battice of Ponds Extension, St. Kitts appeared in the Basseterre Magistrate Court before Her Worship Josephine Mallalieu-Webbe and pleaded guilty to both charges.
The Magistrate, in her wisdom, sentenced him to one month imprisonment and ordered that the time he spent on remand be taken into consideration, which meant that he will be released from prison two weeks from the day he appeared in court.
There was a public outcry when news of his sentence hit the airwaves and the streets.
The Observer spoke to a number of persons on St. Kitts, most of whom, on condition of anonymity, are calling on the Chief Magistrate to resign.
“There have been 14 murders for the year in the Federation, 13 of which were gun-related, and the police have so far been doing a good job of ridding our streets of these illegal guns. When one is caught with an illegal gun and or ammunition, we as law-abiding citizens want to see that justice is served, not a slap on the wrist as that magistrate did,” one woman said.
Another woman claimed that since the police have been mending the fences between themselves and the public, many people have decided to provide the lawmen with information. “But because what is happening in the courts with people getting bailed for gun offences and this most recent one where the magistrate treated that young man as if he is her son, persons are going to desist from cooperating with the hard-working police just because of the decision she made.”
“I am an officer,” a member of the Police Force said. “I cannot understand what is happening with the judiciary. We were denied time-off because of the recent spate of shooting-deaths. We, like everybody else, want to be with our families and loved ones, but we have a mandate to fulfil and we put our lives on the line when most persons are comfortably asleep in their homes.
“It is heart-wrenching to know that we would carry out days and nights of surveillance to catch criminals, only to hear that when they go before the courts they are given a holiday at Her Majesty’s Prison for serious crimes even though they were found guilty.”
The Observer also spoke to a prominent lawyer, who stated that when a person is charged with an offence and was found not to waste the court’s time by pleading guilty early in the trial or would have cooperated with the police, the magistrate or judge would take those factors into consideration and may imposed a reduced sentence for the offence.
“One cannot be judgmental in a magistrate or judge’s decision in a case such as this one, because one does not know the underlying circumstances that might have led to that,” the lawyer said.
Not satisfied with that explanation, especially where firearms and ammunition are concerned, The Observer contacted Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Esan Granderson to find out the penalty of firearm offences at both the High and Magistrate Courts.
Explaining in layman terms, the DPP (Ag) stated that if a person is convicted at the magisterial level of possession of a restricted weapon [firearm] or restricted ammunition, according to the Firearms Act, the penalty is five years imprisonment with or without hard labour; and at the High Court level, the penalty is 10 years imprisonment with or without hard labour.
This revelation was most surprising, as only a few days ago (June 9) at the Basseterre High Court the Justices of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal had reduced the sentences of Terrence ‘JT’ Ritchen of Newtown and Chase Hamilton of Hanley’s Road, Nevis.
Ritchen had appealed his seven-year sentence for illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of ammunition and the Justices reduced it to five years, while Hamilton’s sentence was reduced from five years and seven months to five years for illegal possession of ammunition.
A Basseterre businessman suggested that “placard-bearing persons should launch a peaceful protest against that magistrate, starting from the Courthouse and ending at Government Headquarters in an effort for the authorities to not only remove her from the bench, but to also have legislation to increase the penalty for gun crimes”.
However, when asked if he would bell the cat, the businessman meekly shook his head.
