Youth jailed for stealing from sleeping man

A resident of Ottley Hall was imprisoned on Monday after he pleaded guilty to stealing EC$200 from a sanitation worker while he was asleep.

On September 4, Giovannie Grant, 20 was sentenced to one year imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the charge of theft before Magistrate John Ballah at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court.

Grant was charged that on Sunday, January 15 he stole EC$200 in cash, the property of Julian Young, an employee of the Public Health Department.

The facts, which were read by Prosecutor Shamrock Pierre stated that at about 2 am on January 15, Young went to the Public Health building in Kingstown where he works. He sat on the steps of the building and eventually fell asleep.

He had $200 in cash in the front right pocket of the pair of pants he was wearing. Before falling asleep, he made sure that the money was still in his pocket. As he slept, he felt as if someone was poking their hands into his pocket which caused him to wake up.

As he was waking up, he saw three persons running in the direction of Rose Place. When he checked his pocket, he realised that his money was missing and he therefore reported the matter to the police.

When CCTV footage from cameras in the vicinity was reviewed, Grant was identified as the man who approached Young and ran away with two other males.

The footage was shown to Grant who identified himself on that footage. He was therefore charged with the offence of the theft. The money was not recovered.

The magistrate referred to the sentencing guidelines and found that it was appropriate to start at a custodial sentence of one year.

When the aggravating and mitigating factors were considered, none were found. There were also no mitigating factors of the offender. Aggravating was that Grant has had previous convictions for similar offences, and so the sentence was increased by six months.

The court considered Grant’s guilty plea and offered him a one-third discount from his sentence of six months. This brought the final custodial sentence to one year.

On the same day, Grant was given another custodial sentence of one year and four months for committing assault.

These two sentences will run concurrent to each other and to a previous three-year sentence that he received in May for assaulting his girlfriend by boxing her in the face.