Nicholas Roberts a man with no fixed address who appeared before Magistrate Michael Laudat on a charge of vagrancy, malicious damage, and two charges of theft from separate incidents pleaded guilty to all the charges but begged the court to send him to prison.
“I am hungry send me up so I can eat”, he pleaded.
Roberts is 45 years of age and before his convictions on February 13, 2023, he had 52 previous convictions. “You have more convictions than your age,” Magistrate Laudat told him.
He was arrested by the police for entering the Convent Prep School between February 5 & 6, 2023 via an aluminum window and stealing sweets in the classroom.
When confronted by the police he admitted to the crime stating that “ I burst the window to go and sleep and when I woke up was hungry and ate the sweets.”
Plea in mitigation
The mad house spoiled me since I was 11 years. I would have been a doctor all now, but my mother refused to help me. Don’t send me to the psychiatric unit because they will give me an injection. I need help and counseling so send me to jail. I don’t have work to do, I am a vagrant on the street, I need shelter and food, I need love, comfort, and warmth, I am not a mad man, I am a normal person,” he told the court.
He continued, “I need help, that injection spoil me from an early age.”
On the charge of theft that carries a maximum penalty of 7 years in jail, the Magistrate sentenced him to 24 months and for malicious damage 6 months. The sentences are to run concurrently.
On February 8, 2023, Roberts also entered the home of Rose Andrew of Steber Street Pottersville at 2 am. She was asleep and heard a noise and saw him in her house. Upon seeing him she screamed but he ran and went with her cell phone. The police were called, and Roberts was arrested and admitted to the offense, “Officer I take the phone to sell to buy food,” he said.
Luckily, the phone was recovered outside the house of the next-door neighbour, and the shirt the accused was wearing that evening. The phone was in good order. He was sentenced to 24 months in jail for that offense. He also asked the court to return his shirt to him and that was done. However, his request to have that sentence and his crime at the Convent Prep run concurrently was denied by the court.
In another incident, he also entered the home of another person in Citronier and damaged a door. He was charged with malicious damage and vagrancy. When asked by the court what he had to say in his defense he replied, “jail it has, send me where I can eat and be taken care of…send me to jail, not the psychiatric unit for them to inject me.” He was sentenced to 6 months for malicious damage and 3 months for vagrancy, the sentences are to run concurrently.