Brothers Ryham Graham Nelson aged 28 of Wesley and Carlon Carbon aged 31 were arrested for separate offenses and both pleaded guilty when they appeared before the court.
Armed with a search warrant, Customs, and police went to the home of the men and after reading the warrant to them asked them if they had anything illegal Nelson replied: “I have a gun clip I find two years ago by the school.”
He was asked if he was the holder of a firearms license and he replied “no” hence he was arrested for “possession of firearm since under the firearms Act a magazine is considered a firearm.”
The search continued in the yard and two white energy batteries said to be the property of the Government of Dominica were also found Carbon took ownership of them claiming that it was given to him by a partner two years ago. He was also arrested for handling stolen goods.
Nelson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and Carbon guilty to handling stolen goods.
Both were represented by Wayne Norde and Gina Abraham Thomas. In his mitigation plea, Norde begged the court not to impose a custodial sentence on his clients saying that they both had fully cooperated and were remorseful.
“We beg you to temper justice with mercy and not to send them to prison since they are also first-time offenders and a prison sentence will not help them,” he said.
Carbon was fined $5,000.00 with a forthwith fine of $1,500.00 (which was paid) in default two months jail while the balance of $3,500.00 is to be paid on or before August 31, 2023, in default 4 months jail. Nelson on the other hand was given a $7,000.00 fine with $4,000.00 to be paid forthwith in default 3 months jail (that was paid). The balance of three dollars is to be paid on or before July 31, 2023, in default 2 months in jail. He was further given a two years jail sentence suspended for three years.