38 year old Beverley Ann Shaw, and her daughter, 22 year old Tasy Shaw, appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court recently, where they were fined over J$8,000 and sentenced to six months in prison for possession of ganja, dealing in ganja and taking steps to export ganja. They had been arrested and charged on February 6.
According to reports, both women checked in at the airport to board a flight to Trinidad. However, while they were being interviewed Narcotics police, they were unable to give satisfactory reasons for their travel. They were taken to the Kingston Public Hospital, where they were x-rayed, and later expelled a total of 70 pellets containing ganja.
Both pleaded guilty to the charges. Beverly Ann Shaw was fined $1600 or six months for possession, $3200 or six months for dealing in ganja and $6400 or six months for taking steps to export ganja. Her daughter, Tasy Shaw, was fined $1400 or six months for possession, $2800 or six months for dealing in ganja and $4200 or six months for taking steps to export ganja. If the fines are not paid, the sentences will run concurrently, but consecutive to mandatory six month sentences that both also received.
A pastor is now in hospital, battling for his life, after he was stabbed multiple times by criminals who surprised him at his Red Hills home in St Andrew last night. He has been identified as Reverend Donald Roberts, pastor of Clifton New Testament Church of God, located on Mannings Hill Road in St. Andrew.
According to reports, Roberts arrived at his home, and confronted by three armed men. He reportedly tried to resist, and was stabbed several times.
According to the police, two men were being questioned by detectives, after they were seen running in the vicinity of the crime scene.
Philippe Hadid, a Haitian national, was arrested yesterday morning at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, as he attempted to board American Airlines flight 1504 to Miami. Hadid, who is also said to be a Jamaican by marriage, was found with six plastic bags containing over 42 pounds of gold scrap jewellery worth an estimated J$27 million. He reportedly had no license to ship the jewellery, no permit to trade in the precious metal and no proof of purchase, and was thus arrested and charged with dealing in second hand jewellery and unlawful possession of property.
The police reportedly suspect that the jewellery represents the spoils of numerous home and street robberies. Hadid is believe to be a major player in the thriving black market for stolen jewellery, and since his arrest, they’ve issued a call for persons who have been robbed of their jewellery to contact the Half- Way-Tree Police Station immediately at 926-8186.
The Cave Valley police in St. Ann have reportedly arrested the mother and stepfather of a two year old boy – Kymani Bryan – who died at hospital on Tuesday (February 9) after being beaten at their home.
According to reports, some time between Monday and Tuesday, Kymani was reportedly beaten by his stepfather. He was later taken by his mother and stepfather to the Percy Junor Hospital, where he died. On hearing that he died, the couple reportedly fled, but were later held at different locations in Clarendon.
40 year old Nayman Harriott, who attempted to smuggle two ounces of cocaine out of the island by hiding it inside his bottom (rectum), was sentenced yesterday in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court to 16 months imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a fine of J$50,000, or serve an additional three months behind bars for possession of cocaine.
Harriott had pleaded guilty to the charge of attempting to export cocaine, but his sentence was reduced by three months, after an impassioned plea by his attorney, who reportedly told the court that Harriott was an only-child whose parents depend on him for support. He had been held recently at the Norman Manley International Airport, while attempting to board a flight bound for England, with three pellets of cocaine totaling two ounces, hidden inside his rectum.
Two of three female robbers were reportedly caught red-handed while plundering a pharmacy in Discovery Bay, St. Ann, on Friday (February 5). According to reports, the women were observed taking items off the pharmacy shelf and loading them into a bag, and then they attempted to leave the store without paying Two were held, and handed over to the police, while the third managed to escape in a waiting car.
According to reports, the three women are believed to be the perpetrators of numeroues robberies of bars, roadside jerk spots and shops across the island, using a Toyota motor car as their getaway vehicle. In one particular incident, which happened just outside Old Harbour in St. Catherine, it is alleged that the women ordered jerked pork, and when the barmaid went to fill the order, they robbed the till of an undetermined sum of money and also stole two quarts of Hennessy.
The police are still searching for the third robbery, while her two cronies will appear in the St. Ann’s Bay Criminal Court some time this week.
Washington Boulevard, a four lane dual carriage way, is for many, a fast and way to get into and out of the Corporate Area when traveling west or returning from that direction. For residents of Maverley and Drewsland – two communities that face each other on opposite sides of ‘The Boulevard’ – however, this road represents an imaginary border line which they cross at their own risk. Why? Because heavily armed gangsters from the two communities reportedly patrol the area on the hunt for anyone who ‘strays’ and crosses the border line.
Unfortunately for Tursha Lee, a 23 year old Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) private who was a resident of Morgan Pass in Clarendon and who had stayed overnight with his sister in Drewsland, he was apparently unaware of the danger of crossing the border, and paid with his life earlier yesterday morning.
According to police reports, shortly before seven yesterday morning, Lee left Drewsland and went to a bus stop on the other side of Washington Boulevard. While at the bus stop, he was pounced on by a group of men who shot him multiple times, killing him on the spot.
Numerous persons have reportedly been killed in this area of Washington Boulevard over the past two years; for no other reason than because they lived in Maverley or Drewsland and had ‘strayed’.
A policeman reportedly arrested his own mother recently, after she had stolen $52,000 from a betting shop in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, and had eluded police investigators for four days.
According to reports, the woman worked as a cashier and operator of the betting shop’s Supreme Venture’s machine. On January 19, her boss went to check the previous day’s sales, but found there was no cash where it should have been. The matter was reported to the police, who went in search of her; but she was not found. Her policeman son reportedly heard about the theft, caught up with her, arrested her, and handed her over to investigators.
In the Spanish Town Criminal Court last week, she pleaded guilty to the charge of ‘larceny as a servant’. The resident magistrate adjourned the matter until March 23, when she will be sentenced.
A pregnant woman, 25-year-old Natalee ‘Cathy’ Thompson of Wellside Lane, Old Harbour in St. Catherine, was shot and killed last night at her home.
According to reports, at approximately 8:30 last night, Thompson (who was eight months pregnant), was seen running from her house, and she collapsed a short distance away. She had received multiple gunshots wounds.
