Wife dodges jail over ‘gun-selfies’ with husband
Kayla Powery-Hewitt and husband, Kashwayne Hewitt
(CNS): A West Bay woman who was coerced by her new husband, a convicted gunman, into holding a firearm and taking ‘selfies’ dodged going to jail Thursday after receiving a suspended sentence, despite admitting possession of an unlicensed firearm. Previous court hearings had established exceptional circumstances in the case against Kayla Powery-Hewitt, who has avoided the mandatory minimum jail term for having illegal guns over images found on Kashwayne Hewitt’s phone, which came to light when he was on trial facing charges over a nightclub shooting.
In his sentencing ruling Justice Michael Wood said he accepted that she did not know it was a real weapon and that she was under duress when the images were taken. He handed Powery-Hewitt an 18-month sentence because the custodial threshold had been passed, but he suspended the term for two years, warning the young mother that she could still go to jail if she committed another offence.
Powery-Hewitt had a clean criminal record until this incident with her new husband. She had met, begun a relationship with and then married Hewitt, a Jamaican national, in a very short period. But within months of Hewitt settling in Cayman, he was involved in a gang-related feud and was arrested and then charged in connection with the shooting outside Fete nightclub. He is now serving a twelve-year prison term.
In his advice to Powery-Hewitt, the judge suggested that she might want to avoid keeping company with the man she had married.
Has the Crown appealed the sentence?
I want every Caymanian parent to understand something. Understand the clear fact that we are NOT an urban American culture and you should not be allowing your child, regardless of how old he or she is, to adopt urban American culture as their own. This crap has got to stop and you as parents need to take responsibility for your child’s upbringing. Why are we allowing our children to identify with a culture that is not their own? Why are we allowing our children to behave and speak as if they are extras in a rap video? The problem is that these kids are identifying with what they perceive is “black” culture. They are looking at the cultures of other countries and assuming that this is how they are supposed to carry themselves because that person looks like them. These kids lack a sense of identifying as Caymanian and it is you, the parent, who should be cracking down on your kids and not permitting or tolerating that type of behaviour in your household. It is not Caymanian. It is not us. So why let your child go down that path? If my Caymanian child were to ever come home speaking, or behaving, or dressing as if he’d just emerged from a rap video, he would feel my hand on his backside. I insist that my kid speak properly because it will benefit him in life. I insist that my kid dress like a respectable person because it will benefit his life. I insist that my kid focus every ounce of his energy on his education, and I focus every ounce of my resources on his education, because it will benefit his life. Why are we allowing our kids to adopt a foreign culture that will handicap them for the rest of their lives? Neck tattoos are not Caymanian. Baggy pants and bandanas and thuggish behaviour is not Caymanian. We need to take responsibility for our own and demand better from our kids!
Do you reside in my head?
We are kindred souls.
Loved your post – and I feel the exact same say.
Very well said.
– Who
In Cayman it is only a woman that would be able to avoid a so-called mandatory minimum jail term. Another great example or gender discrimination and the gyno-judicial system at work in the Cayman Islands. Does someone need to explain to the judge the meaning of the words “mandatory minimum”?
Could she really have done any better if her Caymanian parents didn’t raise her right?? Social breakdown in Caymanian society is allowing beautiful young girls to be dragged into dysfunctional relationships with a thug like this…and a government system that supports it no less…
the whole gangster culture needs to be eradicated. that means bars/restaurants/shops need to refuse entrance to people who dress like gangsters
Yup. Zero tolerance.
Drug runners and dealers dress well pretty well which is what attracts at risk youths to joining this way of life. I’m sure these guys are being protected by the top tier residents that are buying their product. How else are the same crowd getting off crime after crime and “lack of evidence” nonsense.
I don’t not understand why this woman was not jailed when she was in possession of a firearm.
how does anyone know she wasn’t in jamaica or miami?
What bollocks. When your boyfriend pulls the West Bay Massive gangsta sign in your love photos it’s a sign he’s from the wrong crowd. When he pulls out a gun and it’s heavier than a water pistol it’s real. Breeding criminals.
Who on earth fell for the cries of “didn’t know it was real”
Are those judges wearing their wool wigs backwards coz it sure is covering their eyes to the truth. She knows everything about her gangsta boyfriend.
Sadly they have already spawned and the cycle of teenage pregnancy and gang life shall probably continue.
Ridiculous. How much more proof did the judge need?
Caymanian status only for marriage huh Arden? What could go wrong?
A serious jail term is needed for this sort of criminal woman. Rather than buying a pathetic sob story and letting her off, a stiff sentence would dissuade young women from these criminal types. Reducing the sexual prospects of criminals is a very effective leverage in the fight against crime, and punishing women who shack up with such low-lives is the best way of exerting that leverage.
Let me just say that I have watched from a distance that this young lady had a rough upbringing. Parent not having enough to provide for a better education as she seemed to have a bit of a learning bisability and being poor doesn’t help either. Everyone may say that she should be jailed but I plead to differ. If you look at what been happening with our young Caymanians they have been deprived of a lot during their lives because their parents can’t afford whatever is needed for them and their parents have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to keep food on the table. So bear in mind that the first man that approaches them with good lyrics they will fall into that trap wether we like it or not. She was never a child that got into any trouble growing up and working the lesser paid job after she left school with little to no education at all. So yes she followed the wrong man and made some really stupid mistakes. But give her the benefit of the doubt that she probably more than likely didn’t know the difference between a real gun or a fake one. What out society forgets is that many of the young people were not privileged to TVs or going to a club so they followed their friends who had no knowledge of how to be a true friend and just went with the flow of things. No I’m not giving her any right for holding a gun and posing to take a picture but being so little uneducated can also be a part of the whole problem. Now that she’s a mother I Pray that she learns a lesson from this and try to raise her child the right way.
All these so called “ ghetto thugs” are pathetic. Especially the dumb girls who follow them around. Girls are supposed to be smarter than guys.
males, on average, are more intelligent than females.fact.
The poster is talking nonsense. Average IQ of males and females are the same. Men have a flatter IQ bell curve than women. There are more men than women proportionately at both ends of the IQ spectrum.
I would agree until those hormones start acting up. Then women are not rational at all and I’m sure the IQ levels also plummet.
obviously same as what the judge thought by letting her off…
These are the same type of people who claim they are being held back by foreigners. Don’t even have enough sense to marry someone that can offer them a better life. Don’t have enough class to try and find a partner that has an education, instead of these low life thugs.
I wish every woman of this caliber, in Cayman, would watch this:
https://youtu.be/40F0T28gS9I
Please…. She is unemployable and falls directly in that class. Please do not let your comment affect the true Cayman employed/unemployed who are treated unfairly by other Caymanians and yes, EXPATS. Just like how not all Caymanians are employable not all expats want the best for us either, I’ve seen it first hand. It took me to leave a company I enjoyed working for all because certain expat individuals were treating most of the Caymanian staff unfair. There is good and bad in every crowd.
LoL its Snoop Lion from Zion
The Magistrates ruling is not helping this woman or the community. It’s these same kind of ruling that’s carried out with so much empathy and analysis that will find us years from now seeing same people back in court with escalated crime. There is NO FEAR of judicial repercussions on this Islands. I do understand though they are following parameters of the law when ruling. But still…
Jamaica – the elephant in the room
Not just the elephant , it’s also the disease in Cayman.
#EverdayCaymankindRacism – the bigots in the room.
They’re so in love. She should be spending ‘time’ with her prince Kashwayne.
Feel sorry for the kid…..the cycle continues…
Whatttttt a toy gun vs a real gun no i am an idiot i have no idea the difference and gets off
i mean her baby…the mother/father are both lost losers…
Feel sorry for US! Because we stuck with the fallout.
Ladies, do not be beguiled by these newcomers. Get to know them before getting emotionally involved. Be on your guard — appearances and reality can be entirely different.
In Kashwaynes case reality and appearance exactly the same. Acts like a gangsta is a gangsta. Sad bit is the reason she is with him is because…
So I found this comment on the article about the 700 P.R. grants “for once I agree with Arden Mclean, Status should only be given based on marriage and descent!” Does Arden believe young people in lust should be deciding who we let into the country?
MLA wants dumb electorate. Shocker!
Why didn’t she just say the photos were taken in Florida? Wait, since when is it illegal to take a picture of a gun?
Are you serious?
First of all most modern devices record the time, date and approximate location that a photo is taken data forensics can determine that easily so it isn’t really worth your time lying, good luck deleting the picture too, they will recover it
And the picture of the gun isn’t the problem it is what the picture indicates
She was holding an illegal unregistered gun, which means she is guilty of possession of an unlicensed firearm that is the crime, the picture is just proof used in court
yes, it’s called cif data. simply editing the photo and resaving it, removes it. Second, who’s to say it wasn’t a photoshop. Yes, that can be proven too, but they don’t have the expertise here on island.
In the Cayman islands its illegal to have a gun, and if its not proven its a gun its called an imitation firearm. If the imitation firearm doesnt have the orange tip at then end of the barrel to verify its fake then its illegal because it causes fear to a person or persons. Whose going to check to see if a fully black “gun” is fake or not when its pushed right in your eyeball? Unless youre lucky enough to catch the words “replica” imprinted on the weapon. In the states police will shoot and kill you for a bb gun with no orange tip. So this is why even a picture of a firearm or a imitation firearm makes it illegal. If youre lucky enough to get caught with one physically, you get upto 3 years imprisonment.
It’s not. It’s proof of possesion you muppet!
Yet another of our stupid young women who are so easily taken in by a guy with muscles and a gangsta attitude. They call it love. The rest of us call it temporary sex and a way for the worthless male to stay legally in Cayman.
A Teacher.
There ain’t no lovin’ like that of a thug. I suggest you give us a try.
If personal massagers weren’t illegal you’d be rendered completely useless very quickly.
I was stopped at customs the other day and they told me personal massagers were illegal. I managed to getting it into the country by telling them they were mistaken, as it was not a personal massager it was a sex toy.
Sigh… unzips. Roll over tough guy.
BS. Jail her. Did she leave this man after the alleged “coercion”. NO!
Sorry, not swallowing that sham of a defense! No wonder the Island is in the state it is in. Slap on the wrist and off ye go. Pitiful!
And I’m sure where you spawned from is in a way better state,stfu.
It quite possibly is. Sorry to inform you, but there are many places much better than Cayman and in much better “states” than this shithole. ?
Leave then. You have a choice.
And thankful I do.
Highly unlikely moron,Cayman islands is a haven to us all compared to the rest of the world,so maybe you should just be grateful for the current state that it is in and that you are very much privileged to be apart of this paradise instead of suffering back at the shithole where you come from.
I understand your need to defend but “haven”? Hardly.
Haven? Really? Lol! Have you ever left Cayman and gone further than Florida?
Oh same one who claims she’s a Gaza thug just like the other young girls she hangs around. Just look at the other pictures as proof.
You mean a Gaza slug lol
Pathetic from the courts once again!!!
Not really pathetic if you think about it, there are real idiots out there that if you tell them red is blue then its true..
Best ruling ever: ‘divorce the loser’
“What can I say Ron, the guys a loser.”
Pierce Brosnan in Mrs. Doubtfire.
I had sooo many questions after reading this post but thankfully just one Facebook search answered them all.
Sad to see the increase in our American-esque ghetto-fied and British-esque council-estate sectors of our community.
Surely the growing importation of foreign labour will only exacerbate the problem.
It’s actually African-esque. Just sayin
Nice try, but those are wholly homemade creations of America and Britain…and by no means does any African element make-up the majority in the latter.
Granted, the national news would have you believe so, but they know their audience well plus it is human nature to defend our own group.
Is she too STUPID for her own good or a thug-wannabe? Either way, I feel awful for her child(ren) as they’re more than likely gonna end up “a statistic” with her as a mother and a convicted-gunman for a father.
Go back to school and get educated young lady , or your path in life is doomed for you and your child !
Yeah right. What a load of bs.
Coerced lol, she prob said take me some pics with the gun
She didn’t know it was real… please. She’s a mom so even posing with a fake one makes her a loser. Hardly mom of the year. I suppose we will blame the Jamaican here. Not the girl for marrying and having kids with a gangster.
11:45. Your right it was the Jamaican! And he is a gangster! That immigration let in!
How long was he here before little Miss Sunshine married him?
She was dumb enough to marry the guy.
Thats no gangster…lol he aint initiated.
Actually 11:45, this is a good example of how the social fabric of Cayman is being ripped apart. Not because she married a gun slinging criminal from Jamaica, but because she lacks the sense to have good judgment. It is because of this sort of ghetto mentality, uneducated, airhead thinking that causes so many people to dig their own graves.
These are the very same type of people who cry and shout about not being given a fair chance in life; because it’s someone else’s fault.
A sad, but true, picture of the grim reality we have to face her.
Wow, even though you may have a point, anyone with common sense can figure out who the young woman is that you are speaking about. This is a small Island and we tend to talk too much about other people’s business while neglecting our own share of negative character flaws.