Ashton found guilty of cocaine possession

You win some, you lose some.

That was the advice convict Devon Ashton said was given to him by arresting officer Constable Hadley Ballantyne, moments after he was taken into custody, just under one year ago.{{more}}

Ashton, 23, of Campden Park, was yesterday found guilty, by Chief Magistrate Sonya Young, of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to supply.

The court heard that some time after 10:00 p.m. on August 18, 2011, Ballantyne and fellow officer Julani Jack, acting on information received, apprehended Ashton in the vicinity known as China Town, just across from the Central Police Station.

The officers, in their sworn testimonies, claimed that as they approached the area, someone shouted ‘Police!’ which caused the defendant to flee.

Constable Jack testified that he gave chase to the defendant, caught him after a short distance, and brought him back to where he had been originally seen cutting a white substance resembling cocaine.

Constable Ballantyne swore that as Ashton ran, the substance fell to the ground. The police officer said he placed the substance in an empty match box and cautioned the defendant when he was brought back by Constable Jack.

The next day, Ashton was charged with possession of a controlled substance, with intent to supply.

Constable Ballantyne also told the court that he took the substance to be analyzed at the police forensic laboratory, where it was identified as cocaine.

Sergeant Forster Scott, attached to the Drug Squad, also gave testimony in the case.

Ashton, who acted in his own defence, contended that he had no knowledge of the drugs, and that he had just finished urinating, when Constable Jack approached him from the front and ‘stick him up’.

“Then another officer (Ballantyne) come and tell me ‘come own this; this gotta be your thing’. I tell him I never know anything about that.

“When Jack bring me round, he (Ballantyne) tell me ‘own it. You win some, you lose some.’”

According to Ashton, when he was brought to the area where Ballantyne was scraping the cocaine from the ground, another individual, who he described as a ‘crack head’, was standing in the same location.

Ashton, during cross examination, said that he could not think of a reason why the police officers would make up a story on him. He, however, said he was not surprised to see them at that time of the night, as it was customary for them to raid the area in their search for drugs.

As Chief Magistrate Young handed down the guilty verdict, she asked the defendant if he could give her a reason why she should not send him to prison, since she has a low tolerance for cocaine and gun related offenses.

Young also commented on the young man’s attitude in court.

“I take a different view to cocaine than marijuana…. I have a one-track mind: coke equals prison, gun equals prison.

“You are very disrespectful… I feel like putting him there for nine months and let him chill out,” she added.

Ashton, in his mitigation, pleaded for leniency, claiming that he was trying to get his life in order after a number of run-ins with the law.

“Gimme a chance…. I just come out after nine months on a murder charge and I was found innocent; and I was only out for one week…. I am trying to get a job. Don’t send me in that place there. I have a future.”

After counsel Grant Connell offered to mitigate further on the defendant’s behalf, the Chief Magistrate decided to withhold sentencing until today, Tuesday.

Ashton was convicted last year on an ammunition charge, but was released at the preliminary enquiry into the August 8 2008 shooting death of Okeefe Lynch of Murray’s Road.(JJ)