Despite pleas for leniency by prosecutor, man jailed for beating girlfriend

A Penniston resident, for whom the prosecutor and a lawyer pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, has been jailed for beating his girlfriend.

Shawn Collis, 39 appeared at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on October 25 before Magistrate John Ballah where he pleaded guilty to the charge that on October 5, 2023 at Pembroke he did unlawfully and maliciously wound Shanice Williams, 23 of Cane Grove.

According to the facts which were read by PC 196 Constantine, Collis and Williams know each other very well as they have been in a common law relationship for the past six months.

On the said date at 7 pm, Williams was about to leave her workplace at the Greaves Supermarket in Pembroke.

As she was leaving, Collis approached her and began questioning her aggressively about an incident which took place on the day before, and then hit her on her face and neck.

Shortly after, the manager of the supermarket observed what was happening and approached Williams to ask if she was okay, while Collis was leaving.

Williams left the supermarket compound, and Collis began following her and continued to beat her, causing Collis’s father to part the fight.

Consequently, Williams sustained some injuries and reported the matter to the Police.

PC 108 Chambers carried out investigations into the matter. Collis was later arrested and charged with the offence of wounding.

Collis told the court that he slapped Williams two to three times during the altercation.

When the magistrate considered the consequence and seriousness of the offence using the sentencing guidelines, Ballah began the sentencing at one year.

Aggravating of the offence was that there was a relationship between Williams and Collis, it was not the first time he was striking her, and there is an age disparity between the two of them. The magistrate therefore added three months, resulting in a notional sentence of one year and three months.

He found that there were no mitigating factors of the offence.

Ballah noted that Collis had no previous convictions for similar offences and reduced the sentence by three months.

However, he said that Collis was not remorseful for his actions, as it seems that he struck Williams so many times that he lost count.

Ballah then considered Collis’s early guilty plea and offered a one third discount to the sentence.

At this juncture, Ballah stopped the sentencing after noticing a seemingly dissatisfied expression on counsel Roderick Jones’s face, and asked him if he wanted to provide any mitigation for Collis.

Jones said that he was Collis’s teacher at Bethel High School, and that he believes that Collis should be granted a non custodial sentence for the offence, as he had not known him to be someone violent and he can be sent home with a warning.

Prosecutor Shamrock Pierre agreed with Jones and admitted that he is not a fan of sending young men to prison. He added that Collis is a first time offender, and the matter was “not serious” or “life-threatening.”

Despite this, after hearing the opinions of both the prosecutor and counsel (who acted as a friend of the court, as Collis was unrepresented), Ballah said that domestic violence is an issue in the country, and so he sentenced Collis to eight months in prison for the offence.