Five-year sentence handed down to Edinboro resident

A five-year prison sentence has been handed down to an Edinboro man who was found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Yesterday at the Serious Offences court, Terron ‘Terra’ Prince led a failed attempt to prove his innocence, a position he held since last October, when he first appeared before the court and pleaded not guilty to having in his possession one 9 mm pistol, serial number P1342460 and six rounds of 9 mm ammunition.

Police officers reported that on October 15, 2016 around 12:20 a.m., Corporal 94 Phillips was heading a mobile patrol in Kingstown, along with PC 614 Simon, PC 299 O’Garro and PC Dougan, when they met Prince in Middle Street.

In his testimony, Simon said Prince began acting suspiciously and when he (Simon) alighted the vehicle, Prince ran towards Tokyo.The Rapid Response Unit (RRU) officer gave chase and told the court that when he arrived in the vicinity of the Bickles restaurant, he saw Prince throw something under a parked trailer.

Simon said he fired a warning shot and shouted “Stop!” to Prince, who ignored him and ran up to Coreas Pharmacy, where he was caught. At this time, Simon pointed out his previous observation to Prince, who replied, “Officer, is a piece of weed I had.”

The Edinboro man was taken back to the spot he threw the item and met O’Garro, who showed him a black firearm that he found under the trailer. When cautioned and questioned, Prince replied, “Officer, that nah mine.”

O’Garro also found a magazine that contained five rounds of ammunition; an additional round was found in the gun’s chamber.

Prince was taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), where he denied owning the firearm.

When he appeared before the court yesterday, the Edinboro man said the only reason he ran from the police was because he had a pound of weed in his possession that he had brought from home to sell.

He accused the officer of meeting him and beating him in the head with a flashlight and said he ditched the weed when he ran.

However, senior prosecutor Adolphus Delpesche told Prince he was lying and questioned why the officers did not charge him when they found the drugs.

Prince did not give evidence yesterday, instead, he asked that his police statement from last year be admitted into evidence.

Unfortunately for Prince, this was not enough to argue his case and he was sentenced to five years in prison for having the gun in his possession and 12 months for the six rounds of ammunition. The sentences will run concurrently. (AS)