BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A strong message against the growing culture of violence was sent at the court yesterday (Mar. 27) when a seven year prison sentence was meted out to one of the 12 individuals arrested and charged earlier this week with gun possession.
Denzil ‘Bongo’ Williams, Ashorne ‘Nash’ Daniel, Hash ‘AK’ Hodge, Roland ‘Ghetto’ Marryshaw, Kelvin ‘Kelly’ Wilkin, Orville ‘Depo’ Benjamin, Chris ‘Piggy’ Warner and five juveniles - all of Sandy Point - appeared before the District B Magistrate Court yesterday morning to face charges of “illegal possession of a firearm” and “illegal possession of ammunition”.
Williams, according to a police report, took the rap for an automatic pistol and ammunition found on the men. He was subsequently sentenced to seven years imprisonment at Her Majesty’s Prison with hard labour on each count, and the sentences to run concurrently.
The other six adults and the juveniles were released from police custody with all charges against them withdrawn.
The incident leading to Williams’ imprisonment happened on March 22. The males were travelling westerly in a vehicle towards Newton Ground when they were stopped and searched by police. A Mac 11 automatic pistol with 31 rounds of 9mm ammunition was found while Benjamin was driving the vehicle.
The men, firearm and ammunition were all taken into police custody and processed. Sometime later, however, the adults were remanded to prison and the juveniles were released on bail on condition that they would appear before the court yesterday for trial.
The seizure of this firearm brings to 11 the number of illegal firearms removed from the Federation’s streets for the year.
