‘Officer, I find the bullet in the garbage’

A 53-year-old man of no fixed abode found misfortune in the garbage, but luck in the courtroom last week, when he dodged jail time for possession of illegal ammunition.

David Deane, who was picked up by the police Thursday, December 14 in Kingstown, was taken and searched at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), where they found in his left front pants pocket, one 9 mm bullet which he had no licence for.

Deane explained to the officers, “Officer, I find it, find it in the garbage.” The ammunition was tested and found to be live by a ballistics expert, and Deane brought before the Serious Offences Court last Friday on a charge of possession of illegal ammunition.

The repentant man, who pleaded guilty to the offence, was very frank with the Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias.

He informed her that it had been nine months since he had last been in jail and he was trying to throw away his belt of trouble.

The man, who said he was born on New Year’s Day and has no family willing to take care of him, even though he has a sister and children, said that his occupation is to find dog food in the garbage.

He said he found the bullet in the garbage, in much the same manner that he finds other things like the ties that little children put in their hair. He also said that he once found a US$50 dollar bill, which he gave to a taxi driver in exchange for 70 EC.

“I asking you for a little mercy,” he pleaded with the magistrate.

“I never get caught with no bullet, no gun, nothing.” He also stated that he would not keep any bullets he finds in the future, “If I find it, I carry it by the station instead.”

The Chief Magistrate, in sentencing, stated “You were very candid and frank with your history,” but she also noted that the maximum sentence for the offence was seven years spent in jail. Although it was a ‘very serious’ offence, Browne-Matthias decided simply to reprimand and discharge him.(KR)