Knife robber jailed for gun possession

Persons present at the Kingstown Magistrates’ Court last week Friday had puzzled faces when a man who held up another man with a knife was sentenced to jail for gun possession instead. {{more}}

Zecho “Shortman” Miller, 24, a fisherman of Green Hill, was slapped with a five-year prison sentence after Senior Magistrate Donald Browne found him guilty of having in his possession a .32 pistol. He was also sentenced to three years for possessing three rounds of .32 ammunition. His sentences are to run concurrently. The Court heard that on September 29, 2007, at about 8.40 pm, Miller went into a man’s home in Barrouallie, armed with a knife, and demanded $1000. The man told Miller that he did not have any money, but he would give him his ATM card instead. Miller did not take it.

Miller instead gave the man his cellular phone number, and asked him to call him when he got the money.

Later the same night the man telephoned Miller to ask where he was. Miller told him he was at a bus stop and he could meet him there. By this time, the defendant had already contacted the police who accompanied him to the bus stop, which led to Miller’s arrest. Miller had in his possession the gun and ammunition.

“You are an amateur. You don’t know what you are doing,” said Magistrate Browne.

Miller, however, was adamant that the gun did not belong to him, and that he found it in some bushes while doing some work on his family’s land.

Miller told the Magistrate that he was afraid to take the gun to the police because he might have been arrested.

“It is people like you who are causing the proliferation of guns here in St Vincent,” Browne said.