Local man back in jail over gun, more cases loom
Robert Aaron Crawford
(CNS): Following a decision by the Privy Council earlier this year to restore his conviction for possession of an unlicensed firearm, Aaron Crawford was formally committed back to serving the remainder of his sentence Thursday. He is also scheduled to face two more criminal trials for alleged gun related crimes next year, which officials claim he committed after being released by the appeal court. The order to reinstate his ten-year sentence was made by Justice Charles Quin, the original trial judge in the case that had found Crawford guilty of having a handgun when he fled on foot from police following a car chase in 2011.
The 22-year-old West Bay man was convicted following a judge alone trial in 2012 and given the mandatory decade behind bars for unlicensed gun possession, but the case was overturned by the Cayman Islands Court of Aappeal and he was released in 2013. The crown challenged the appeal court decision in London at the Privy Council and successfully overturned the decision by the Cayman Islands Court of appeal court.
Crawford was just 18 at the time he was arrested and charged with possession of a handgun. At the time, police officers chased him along Esterley Tibbetts on foot after he crashed the car he was driving trying to outrun the police.
As one officer chased Crawford, he saw him fling the weapon into the bush and after catching up with him a search of the area was conducted and the loaded gun was found. He was convicted by the judge based on the police officer’s account and the supporting evidence. However, discrepancies over crime scene photographs taken by police that appeared to show the gun being moved called the conviction into question. The Court of Appeal quashed it and release Crawford.
During his released he was arrested and charged with several more gun related offences, one of which saw him remanded in custody again. Crawford is expected to face the first of two more trials in May and a second later in the year.
