CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER of the Nevis Cultural Development Foundation Tonya Powell was on Wednesday (Apr. 29) in the Charlestown Magistrate’s Court fined for obstruction and battery.

Magistrate Claudette Jenkins heard how Powell obstructed officers of the Nevis Branch of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force when they approached the premises of Ibol Tyson on June 17, 2008 to conduct a search. During the course of the obstruction Powell also assaulted Constable Bradshaw.

Despite the defendant’s not guilty plea, Magistrate Jenkins said she had no doubt that Powell was guilty. She was fined $750 which must be paid within a month or she will spend one month in prison.

In the same court, Glenroy Clarke of Craddock Road was fined $1 000 after he was found guilty of assault.

The court heard that on March 24, 2009 Franchette Davis of Prospect reported that he was in a barber shop getting a hair cut when the accused entered, pointed a gun at him and said, “I gon kill all of you”. Davis said he was afraid and with no way to run he raised his arms in the air as a gesture of surrender, after which the defendant fled the scene. Davis said he looked outside and managed to see the defendant running through an alley.

“I finished my haircut and then went to the station to make a report,” Davis said.

Clarke, in his defence, told the court that he did not go to the barber shop to trouble Davis. He claimed that he also went for a haircut and on arrival there he met the virtual complainant in the chair and told him, “Tell you boys them stop messing with me because I ain’t in nothing with them.”

When asked by police prosecutor Inspector Mitchell why he uttered those words, he replied that Davis’ friends kept firing shots at his home and he just wanted to give him the message.

Clarke’s defence was not enough to prove to the court that he was not guilty, and he was therefore convicted and fined $1 000, which he must pay in six weeks or spend two months in prison.