Rockies man jailed for six years on firearm offence

A ROCKIES man found guilty of possession of a loaded firearm kept under his pillow has been sentenced to spend 75 months in prison.

This would make Ackeem Ferdinand a repeat offender of firearm offences as he was in August 2017, at the age of 22 years, imprisoned for six years for possession of an unlicensed nine-millimetre Uzi and two years (to be served concurrently) for possession of 12 rounds of unlicensed 9mm ammunition. However, the sentence for possession of the Uzi was reduced to five years at the Court of Appeal.

In the 2017 case Ferdinand had admitted guilt to the court and claimed that alcohol was his reason for possession.

However, this time around the Rockies resident maintained his innocence, and pleaded not guilty to the charge that he, on November 28, 2021, at Rockies, had one 3.89mm pistol serial number MG974524 without a license. Further, he denied that he had 19 rounds of 9mm ammunition in his possession with a license issued under the Firearms Act, or 552grams of the controlled drug cannabis.

Although he lacked legal representation during the trial, Ferdinand had seemingly come prepared to fight the charges with what appeared to be a list of questions/points for the different witnesses written in a notebook.

The version of events as put forward by officers such as Corporal 296 Davis and Police Constable 109 Ballah was that a group of officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) went to Ferdinand’s house to execute a search warrant with respect to burglary. When the police arrived they met Ferdinand sleeping in bed next to his teenage girlfriend. The warrant was shown and read to him, and a subsequent search of the premises resulted in the find of the 9mm pistol under the pillow which he was lying on. When this discovery was made Ferdinand is said to have reacted by saying “Cha boy I ain even remember dat dey dey.” It was apparently beside the pistol that the officers found the ammunition. Upon further searching the house, a quantity of Marijuana was found in a clothes cupboard.

From his line of questioning, Ferdinand seemed to be implying that his premises was not fenced or properly secured and anyone could have had easy access to it.

Nonetheless when all was said and done, Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne presiding at the Serious Offences Court (SOC) ruled that the defendant was guilty of the offences for which he had been charged. She sentenced him on Thursday May 12 to 75 months incarceration for possession of the firearm, 24 months imprisonment for the ammunition and a $1500 fine to be paid forthwith, default three months in prison.

The two prison sentences will run concurrently.