Chiefman sentenced to 14 years for firearm possession

Devorn “Chiefman” Charles will spend the next 14 and a half years of his life in prison for possessing a gun with intent to murder, in a case in which he beat his fourth murder charge.

Charles, 38 had been charged that on August 2 2020, at Block 2000, Old Montrose, with malice aforethought, he caused the death of Kimron “Warlord” Hannaway by shooting him in the head and about his body. He was also charged that on the same day and place, he was in possession of an unlicensed firearm with intent to commit the offence of murder.

Lawyer Duane Daniel, who, when the jury delivered their verdict was seemingly frustrated that his client had been found not guilty of murder, but guilty of possession of a gun with intent to murder, told Justice Brian Cottle yesterday, October 19, that he still finds the verdicts “awfully perplexing,” especially when assessing the mitigating factors of the offence for sentencing.

But having his arguments dismissed by the judge, Daniel proceeded with the task at hand and asked the court to deviate from the sentencing guidelines in light of this “special” case.

Daniel said that Charles dropped out of secondary school due to financial difficulties, and attended the Faith Temple Church as a child. Charles also considers himself a non-practising Christian. Daniel added that Charles loves reading romance, adventure and mystery novels.

And prior to his incarceration, he was applying for a loan to run a vehicle rental business. He was also set to be married in December 2020, but his fiance has moved on.

However, the judge found that there was “no reason to divert” from the sentencing guidelines and began his consideration of the consequence and seriousness of the offence.

Cottle placed the consequence of the offence into the highest category, category one, as a life was lost as a result of this offence. He then considered the seriousness of the offence, and placed it into the highest level, level A as four rounds of ammunition were discharged and the weapon was not recovered.

As a result, he began the sentencing with a starting point of 75 per cent of the maximum sentence of 25 years, which equates to 18 years and nine months.

He then considered the aggravating factors of the offence and found that the firearm was semi-automatic, and that Charles was not the holder of a license. There were no mitigating factors of the offence.

When considering the aggravating factors, Cottle found that the offender has previous convictions including being in possession of controlled drugs on three separate occasions and for being in possession of a firearm.

Mitigating of the offender was that he had not committed a criminal offence since 2016.

The court also took into considering the length of time that Charles had already spent on remand which is three years two months and 17 days; and so when the judge considered all of these factors, including the time the offender spend on remand, he came to a final sentence of 14 years six months and 13 days.

Charles had been charged with murder in relation to offences which occurred on July 23, 2015, September 15, 2015 and August 28, 2008. He walked free from all of those charges.