Six year sentence for robbery and assault

Dickson resident Alwill “Will” Franklyn will spend the next six years at Her Majesty’s Prison, after being convicted of robbery and assault.{{more}}

Justice Gertel Thom handed down the custodial sentence on Monday, March 1, 2009, at the High Court, after a nine member mixed jury came to a guilty verdict last Thursday, February 26, 2009, at the High Court.

He was also slapped with an 18-month prison sentence on the assault charge. The sentences will run concurrently.

Franklyn, 44, of Georgetown, was accused of relieving Cassandra Shallow of over $1,000 and hitting her over the head with a ketchup bottle while at a party at the “Drop Off” nightclub in Sans Souci on October 1, 2007.

Shallow, who was the bartender at the time, said she was in the bar at about 12:55 am serving chicken and fries when the defendant came to the counter and requested a five-dollar portion of the chicken and fries. Shallow told the court that she told the defendant he had to wait his turn and he became agitated and started cursing her.

About an hour later, Shallow said she was about to take some fries out of the freezer when she was struck on the left side of her head with a bottle by the accused. “When I look around I see Alwill standing there,” Shallow noted. The woman added that Franklyn took a Heineken box containing money from a stool nearby and escaped through the back door.

Mitigating on Franklyn’s behalf at Monday’s sentencing, attorney Ronald Marks said that the prisoner was the sole breadwinner of his family and that he had taken up multiple jobs to support them. Marks also added that the robbery was not a sophisticated operation and there was no firearm or knife used but a Ketchup bottle that only inflicted soft tissue injuries to Shallow’s head. The young attorney further stated that there was an absence of non-aggravating factors and asked the court to be lenient in handing down a sentence.

Franklyn has 11 previous convictions dating back to 1987, with the most recent being in 2003.

Before passing her sentence on the convicted man, Thom said she agreed with Marks but reminded the court that Franklyn had a long record of convictions. “For some reason, you seemed not to learn over the years and you have been granted leniency,” Thom stated. “You seem to have a streak of violence in you and you need to be rehabilitated,” the judge continued. (KW)