Illegal gun earns WB man 9 years in jail
Kylan Hunter
(CNS): Kylan Hunter (34) was handed a nine-year jail sentence Tuesday when he appeared in Grand Court for a sentencing hearing, having pled guilty on the morning of his trial last year to having an illegal gun near a beach front bar. This is the second time that Hunter has received a lengthy term of imprisonment for possessing an unlicensed firearm, despite not being charged on either occasion with using the weapon in the course of a crime.
Hunter, who is from West Bay, was arrested in April 2016 in the parking lot close to Calico Jack’s on Seven Mile Beach. Police on patrol in the early hours of the morning were observing a group of people after the bar had closed when they spotted Hunter take a gun from the waistband of his pants and push it into the hands of Juliette Latham (29), who was standing by him.
An officer followed Latham, who had begun walking away, and retrieved what turned out to be a loaded Smith & Wesson pistol from her. She then shouted at Hunter that he needed to take responsibility for the weapon as she was not going to go to jail for him.
Latham admitted having the gun after Hunter had forced her to take it from him and she pleaded guilty to possession and cooperated with police. She was later given a suspended sentence when a judge found exceptional circumstances, allowing him to deviate from the mandatory minimum term for unlawful firearms.
However, Hunter persistently denied knowing anything about the gun, even when his DNA was found on the weapon, until the morning of his trial last year, when he finally admitted the possession.
As he handed down the sentence, Justice Charles Quin said that in Hunter’s case there were no exceptional circumstances and he was not entirely convinced that Hunter had, as his attorney claimed, shown remorse. He raised concerns that Hunter had denied the crime for a considerable time and tried to blame others.
The judge spoke about his previous conviction for the possession of an illegal gun in 2007 and the ten-year term he was given then, as well as a number of other offences, including escaping custody, resisting arrest, assault and other crimes, that Justice Quin said demonstrated a disrespect for authority.
Given all of the circumstances, he said, 12 years was a reasonable starting point, but giving consideration to mitigation and Hunter’s eventual admission, the judge cut the sentence by 25% to nine years.
Hunter served his first jail term over a gun following an incident in West Bay in 2006 when he was just 21 years old. He was convicted the following year after a jury trial in which he denied being in possession of a .38 Taurus handgun. Hunter had handed the gun in to the police, saying he had found it in the bushes while playing football. But the crown’s case was that Hunter was spotted retrieving the gun from a West Bay yard, where it had been thrown from a passing car, and a magazine was found in the yard that matched the gun.
Hunter was handed the mandatory term following the conviction in 2007 but it was not revealed in court exactly when Hunter, who is now 34 years old, was released.
Category: Courts, Crime, Local News
@ Anonymous says:
31/01/2018 at 8:05 am:
1.) You need to get a life.
2.) By now you should realise your thwarted expectations of Who are a result of your personal bias thereto. Why this exists is also for you to figure out.
3.) Hating someone does not equate to them being irrational.
Often it is simply a case of the development of a deep-seeded inferiority complex by way of obsession with said someone.
4.) Granted, Who is very unpopular in the CNS circles (for a number of perceived reasons, I am sure) – but Who is far from foolish.
– Who
@ 4:20pm If there weren’t persons here consuming marijuana then they would not be coming to our shores. Someone has to pay for this before it arrives here. It may be a good idea for you to join Law Enforcement and try to assist them with border patrol. Kmt
The comments here are so disturbing. Yes, Hunter made some bad choices in his life and hopefully he has learned a valuable lesson. However, those of you with children please be careful how you comment as we never know the paths that our children will take after becoming adults. I am quite certain that his family members are very sad about this situation but will support him regardless his mistakes. We all make mistakes, so those without sin, cast the first stone. Keep strong family, we love you.
Well, its not as if he made just the one mistake, is it? He committed the same offence again having served a long prison term the first time around. You have to seriously question the likelihood of his having learned a valuable lesson.
He is a George Towner. He may have been living in West Bay at time of crime but his permanent residence and family are from George Town. Every opportunity to link WB to criminals seem to sometime be a default thing with the press. Just saying…
He is from West Bay. Went school with him. Know your facts.
Stop telling lies , he might have went to school with you , but you didn’t say George town school or West bay . So that doesn’t make him to be from West bay because you went to School with him. But I kinda believe that he is from Northwest point West bay
I know my facts! You going to school with him mean nothing. Do you live WB? Are you from WB?
Who cares, a criminal from Cayman is all that matters. Think anyone who is not from Cayman cares about west bay and Georgetown
I am really liking this mandatory sentence thing for gun possession. These punks are too stupid to realize the consequences so they keep playing with guns and the Police are slowly taking them off the streets. Well done CIP!
Your imaginary link between testosterone and “criminality” is pure bullshit
There are thousands if not millions of factors that determine the state of mind of individuals that leads to the avoidance or committing of crimes
Chalking it up to criminals just being “hard-wired” is complete garbage, just a simple bad apples answer that people use to justify cruel and unusual punishment (such as castration) and the “they aren’t worth the effort” talking point
Not to mention that fact that rehabilitation is shown to work, recidivism in countries with comprehensive rehabilitation programs is much lower than in places like the US and Cayman
I would suggest you do some research instead of trying to push your own opinion as scientific fact
Some are, isn’t that scientific?
Protect the boarders
Boarders is right!
Squatters rights!
Yes, for they must be allowed to put up their boards.
What a beautiful little fella. He must have had a lot of fun inside. He can’t seem to stay away.
He misses Donkey and Hoss.
Michael Jefferson’s DNA nor finger prints were found on the gun that he was sent to jail for. So unfair!! Michael got 10 years with no finger prints or DNA on the gun and Hunter gets 9 years for having DNA on his gun. Where is the JUSTICE FOR MICHAEL JEFFERSON? Please will someone revisit Jefferson’s case.
Try reading. It ways his dna was on the gun.
The gun was found in his house…
Free Michael jefferson!!!!!!
This is so sad and just goes to prove Northward Prison is not doing their part in rehabilitating offenders regardless how long they have persons incarcerated. The Government has to address this matter as a matter of urgency.
Rehabilitation in jail is a waste of resources. Those that want to change either do it by choice (very rarely since criminality is largely hard-wired into the brain) or with the aid of post-sentencing assistance; even that skews the value since the only thing that really reduces criminality levels is a reduction in testosterone by aging (although I suppose castration could do it too!). Programmes inside jails are just used by criminals as excuses to leave early before committing more crime. Assume bad people will stay bad, the percentage that reform prior to significant reduction in testosterone levels is tiny.
The purpose of prison is to remove dangerous elements from society thereby keeping society safer. It would be good if the prisons could successfully rehabilitate prisoners so that they can reintegrate with society. However, rehabilitation is not the primary purpose of a prison system. Furthermore, the prison can do their best in trying to rehabilitate said prisoner, and he/she can still make no effort to reintegrate with society which turns them into jailbirds.
Just my two cents worth…
I really don’t understand the logic of cutting the 12 year sentence to 9 with a guilty plea on the morning of trial, and only after DNA was found on the weapon. This dishonest repeat offender deserves no discount for having tried to let the girl go to jail on his behalf! 50 years ago, he would have been hung in the town square.
Yes and 200 years ago they would have whipped him and put him back in the field to pick cotton, just because something happened in the past doesn’t mean we have the justification to do it now
It’s 2018 people stop living in the 1700s
Most inane comment of 2018 award has a new front runner.
Waiting for Who to blame Tony Blair or institutionalised white racism for this.
why does he need a gun is the real question?
Because he is a victim who really needs a big hug. In Who’s world anyway.
LOL
I see people talking about deport him. Doesn’t matter where he is from. He committed a crime so that’s all that matters. Also i went to school with this dude when i was a kid. So he has been here a very long time. So we all need to get off this wagon thinking its only people from overseas that come here to commit crimes. Our own people commit crimes as well. So just stop. If someone committed a crime and they are found guilty then they deserve to pay the price.
Who have life sentences in Cayman? Your family members is the ones you need to talk about not the one who isn’t stupid people. Talking about stuff that isnt relevant kmt he born George town hospital go check the records he just isn’t for two cousins or brother and sister like u so called caymanians. Nobody here is a full caymanian and that’s our problem worrying about people business
Clearly his prison experience wasn’t bad enough the first time around. Perhaps time to consider some changes at Northward? Perhaps some physical labor for them to earn their keep there would help?
You actually think the fear of punishment stops actual criminals from committing crimes?
the fear of punishment keeps the law abiding citizens in line, criminals think they will never be caught or that they are going to get away with it due to skill or luck
Very rarely does someone commit a crime thinking “I’m going to be caught but I’m going to do this anyway”
I just don’t get the reduction in punishment just because of his guilty plea. I mean this is his second time so he clearly didn’t learn the first time around and one would suspect that a 34 year old man would know better! Why are criminals always given so much consideration and leeway?
I hope people (especially women) who like to hang out with those wanna be bad guys read this article and pay attention. How easily your life can change drastically just because you associate yourself with the wrong crowd. Have some pride! Are you really prepared to be going to prison for someone who probably gives a shit about you?
WB??? Kylan from Jam!!
Oh you want him to get 30yrs like your cousins that kill their cousins for woman who is their cousins lol and rape their cousins because if I understanding you people all you really want is to keep it in the family incest is what you like here. Kylan was born here just not by your cousin Facts and the girl had the gun in her underwear so how his DNA on it? More FACTS CHECK THE POLICE STATEMENT BUT NEWS WONT SAY THAT HUH
Why is it that it is never reported where SOME of these criminals come from? It’s always “a George Town man” or a “West Bay man”. This guy is from Jamaica.
We got a lot of them here and more coming in every night with their shipments of ganja and guns. And those who buy their ganja should get 9 years too!
Maybe if they gave a long sentence and actually made these thugs serve the sentence, maybe just maybe things would get better around here.
But what do we do?
Bleeding hearts continue to hand down 9 years and out in 4.
OBVIOUSLY 9 YEARS ISN’T LONG ENOUGH !!!!
DUH!!!!
9 years isn’t long so what is?
15?
20?
35?
100?
You try staying in your house with for 9 years and come back on CNS and tell me it isn’t a long time
There are rules set in the laws that determine the range of punishments for specific crimes while taking into account aggravating and mitigating factors, the judge or magistrate has final say but they are meant to do what they think is right
Do you know how much money this man is going to cost the CIG and thus the Caymanian people?
Hundreds of thousands of dollars. and you want it increased?
revoke these serious crime people & deport him to where he came from!!
What a worthless waste of life.
He needs to be given 30 years and deported. He is not from indigous caymanian parents.
For that hairstyle alone!
*INDIGENOUS Cayman parents produce worse. Your point makes no sense.
It makes sense if you are a racist.
Most of the criminals I see on here aren’t.
Idiotic comment! This is why we are struggling within our own Country. We are so busy fighting down each other that we are dwindling down our already low numbers so we are a complete inconsequential minority with no power. Expats are smart, they band together, sell to each other, invest with each other and promote opportunities at every turn. We can’t even get out the bloody bucket because we are fighting about who is real and who is indigenous! STUPID
“indigenous caymanian parents” – he is not from turtles or blue iguana?? There were no people on this rock when it was discovered.