Fugitive blames health issues for absence
David Meadors being interviewed by the Sun Sentinel
(CNS): David Meadors (53), who was convicted of possession of an illegal gun but failed to appear in court last month for additional charges, is in the United States at his home in Hollywood, South Florida, according to a report in the local press. Meadors told the Sun Sentinel that he did not answer bail because he has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that Cayman was not capable of dealing with. A warrant has been issued for the US national, who was building a home on Cayman Brac, but it is not yet clear if the director of public prosecutions has made an extradition request for the fugitive.
Meadors was charged with several firearms-related offences when the authorities found a handgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, an air pistol and a BB rifle among his possessions in a container at the building site of his home and a rental unit he was staying in while he built the new house. Having already pleaded guilty to possessing an unlicensed 9mm Glock, he was due to face trial for the ammunition, air pistol and BB gun. He denies knowledge of those items, claiming that he did not pack the container.
Having been allowed to travel for medical reasons, despite his conviction over the handgun, Meadors claimed it was his health that led him to defy the court.
“I was put in a no-win situation by having to decide between defying the court’s order or defying my doctors’ orders,” he told the Florida-based news house. He added that the “Cayman Islands have no way of taking care of my medical needs”, and claimed the courts had not given any thought to how they would do so if he came back.
Meadors maintains that he had the Glock because he had travelled by boat from Florida to the Brac and needed a gun on board to protect himself. He also said he did not know he needed a licence to possess a gun in Cayman. He told the Sun Sentinel that he and his wife had identified Cayman Brac as their dream destination for a retirement home and had been coming to the island to work on it since 2016.
Meadors said he believed he was being treated unfairly because in other cases where lawful US gun owners have been found coming into Cayman with their weapons and ammunition, they are generally fined, whereas he is facing the mandatory minimum sentence for gun possession of seven years.
Following his failure to appear last month and the warrant issued for his arrest, the court also set a trial date for November after the crown said it was going to try to locate Meadors.
His decision to abscond is likely to cost him and a number of other people dearly. Meadors had not only placed a cash deposit with the court of $5,000 but a charge of $400,000 was also attached to his land on the Brac.
Three local people had also pooled resources and offered a further $23,000 in sureties to secure his bail. Those individuals now stand to lose that cash.
Meadors’ time is up. He’s due in court this November. He pled guilty and now needs to face his sentence for breaking the gun laws. He skipped bail. Ignorance is no excuse he just assumed that since he’s an American its OK to have his gun anywhere he wants, WRONG. Meanwhile until the judge swears out an INTERPOL red warrant he’ll sit in his office in Dania Beach or his beachfront condo in Hollywood Florida every day and laugh at how he fooled Camaynian justice. The judge needs to sign the warrant and have the US Marshals drag him back to George Town in cuffs.
And for all who like to type the word RASIST. My grandma use to tell me the truth is seldom pleasant.
Did your grandma also teach you how to spell?!
Rotflmfao. Good one
so we can replace hearts and other extremely rare medical problems at shettys but he cant get no help here. lol the elite allways find a way to justify there reasoning if it wa one dem cayman boys he gettin the ten.
This guys gun possession isn’t the same intended possession of thugs on the street. Dude is a multi millionaire… He wasn’t going to use his glock to rob the rich. He is the rich. Maybe to protect against these guys climbing through windows? Wouldn’t that be something.
That does not justify ownership of an illegal firearm. Case closed, sorry.
Money doesn’t buy brains….maybe Rich Uncle Pennybags should have hired a better scriptwriter?
Yes cause no millionaire ever used a gun to kill.
Robert Blake
Phil Spector
James Ward
Vegas shooter (500 victims) …
5.12pm Not robbing the rich. Robbing the poor maybe?
Once again the DPP has failed to do due diligence or simply turned a blind eye. There’s this case , and the case of the supermarket manager, and the lady at NCVO, the guy from Calico Jacks? ( he has refused to return and the DPP has refused to ask for his extradition claiming it would not be worth the effort or something to that effect). I believe there have been others . So please can somebody audit the DPPs office.Perhaps the courts should be able to try these people in their absence if they fail to return Refusal to return should be entered as a guilty verdict. Once they are convicted then we can ask Interpol to assist us in their apprehension.
Also, still waiting for word of the extradition request having been filed to bring our hero Jeff home…
Americans that take guns into the jurisdiction get off too lightly for no good reason. A couple of jail sentences would make them check their luggage better.
I don’t think jail is the right idea as that costs us money. An automatic CI$10,000 fine would do the trick. 1 court hearing and done. Keep their passport until they pay.
$100,000 fine or jail is better. $10k is nothing to gum obsessed Americans.
Once again, RCIPS fails in taking the passport, or putting a red notice alert at the airport. Not rocket science.
Ummm – the report says he was allowed to travel for medical reasons
Did you skip all the news story and went straight to comment? Comprehension, in this instance, is also not rocket science.
The news articles states;
“Having been allowed to travel for medical reasons, despite his conviction over the handgun, Meadors claimed it was his health that led him to defy the court.”
Wow, so the RCIPS is getting blamed for the court’s decisions now?
Reading all these comments, I can only assume that the reason that most of the prisoners in Northward are “men of colour” is because white men always get away with it. Maybe you should all do a Michael Jackson.
Once you are a Caymanian you are a target straight up the judicial system and police try to bully us always treating us like sh*t.
The old slaves owners trained the slave masters to detain us about building a bigger prison well I hope that it house this man on the run because if it was one of I they wouldn’t stop till they find us!
It’s always going to b a WAR and when it SPARK it going BLAZE TREAT US ALL EQUAL WE ARE NOT YOUR SLAVES
Separating us and getting along with our wives and husband just for pleasure sake Jah don’t sleep nor slumber we see everything!
The police and judicial system treat everyone that breaks the law like sh*t. That is what they are there for. Skin color doesn’t matter like you would believe. Plenty white people locked up too and the attitude of you and people like you make me sick to my stomach.
My opinion makes you sick because it’s reality and you don’t have to be a criminal to get harrassed by the police being a Native alone is a good enough reason like the cops aren’t criminals have you read about the Jamaican police officer sent home for a murder case hahaha
If it was a caymanian they would have hinged us with a 14+year sentence I can talk it cuz it happens every day to us
This is true
Wow, that’s a big chip.
Good job wanton self-pity is not a crime.
We got that privilege and power distance in full force with this 1 !
Notice to all you LOCAL gun license holders. Please check your bags thoroughly before travelling to the US or anywhere for that matter. Although our airport security seem to be doing a better job at catching these culprits than the TSA.. The excuse that your a Cayman Islands gun license holder and your “forgot the gun or ammunition ” in your possession will never fly. A Cayman Islands gun license is not a global license enabling you to travel freely to any jurisdiction in the world with your firearm unregistered. Its privileges can only be exercised within the Cayman Islands. And the Feds would love to make an example out of you!
How does anyone accidentally forget they packed a gun or ammunition?
Happens dozens of times every day.
They don’t. They lie because they thought they would get away with it.
Never going to happen, TSA misses 95% of all contraband…
Actually you can fly all over the US with an unregistered gun in your checked luggage.
Most gun licences in the USA are not nationwide either, most are issued for a specific state or even county, so the old excuses about not knowing a licence was required is nothing but crap.
There are no “conceal carry” licensees in the Cayman Islands, so the reverse analogy doesn’t apply. The only registered gun owners in the Cayman Islands that would fly with declared weapons *locked in special checked trunks* are our World-class Trap and Skeet Champions. They know what they are doing, and have sought permission to do it…many of them are also law enforcement!
Of course, we always missing the bigger picture. The root of this problem lies within the first cases of “forgotten ammunition” to happen in recent times in the cayman islands. Ever the passive beings and not wanting to “step on our bread and butters toes” i.e. tourists, specially north american ones, our authorities readily accepted the somewhat scripted response of —- “Oh I forgot, you see I use this bag for hunting back in my home state where I’m a licensed firearm holder. And to add to that I’m a law abiding citizen in my home country so even though I broke the law in your jurisdiction I should be let off “. And let them off we did. In other words our authorities enforce or repress the laws that should govern every inhabitant equally, to suit the circumstance.
Did anyone notice the regular occurrence of such cases thereafter ? It seems like flowers was stopping one every week trying board an aircraft with a live firearm or ammunition. What’s amazing is how on earth did they ever get thru TSA (they search and scan the crap out of you) in the US and cayman islands customs intially, only to be caught departing with the same said bag they used throughout their 7 week vacation. There was even a recent case in the brac before meadors of one getting caught with his firearm while DEPARTING on his private aircraft and yet again, a fine and warning and off he went.
The precedence has been set with those initial cases, and our authorities lack of enforcement across the board, which led to degenerates like meadors to blatantly break the law and then shockingly use the excuse that since we let the others off with a fine/slap on the wrist he deserves the same treatment. Shamelessly, he and his group has even set up a go fund me page, complete with utter lies and slandering of the cayman islands to assist him in breaking the law. Slandering the same nation that readily accepted him, so much so that he was building his dream retirement home here. Now after admission of guilt that he needed the gun for protection, the cayman islands authorities are out to get him supposedly, and the cayman islands are the worst most corrupt place on earth. #caymaniansareentitled ?
Let’s be realistic; he’ll never be extradited, just seize and sell his land. Job done.
Interesting he was essentially moving to Cayman Brac where there are hardly any medical facilities yet use it as the excuse to defy a court order. We think it’s clear why he left and ignored the court. The DPP should not back down on this one. Don’t be weak.
“Complexion for the protection”…and the clearance to travel despite an illegal gun conviction.
Must be nice.
Racist!
Nope. White privilege. Enjoy it.
Don’t worry I do. It’s lovely.
Cool.
Turns one into a soft-centered snowflake without even realising though.
I’ll tend to find those that use the term ‘snowflake’ can be safely ignored in whatever else they say. Passionate Trump supporters and English Brexit voters love the word.
It’s clear to see! Who give bail to someone that is a flight risk and then allows them to travel!? Has never happened to the NATIVES of dark complexion. You know what happens, the book gets thrown at them, they are called scum all over online media outlets. Every good this they have done in the past is forgotten or erased by the firearm conviction. Now, i am not saying they should be let free, but there need to be consistency. You cannot have one rule for one group and other rule for the other. At the very least, it is highly discriminatory.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like one, more than likely, it is one.
This island is a sell out for the white man! You don’t see that. Cain descendants
What about the black Bahamian guy that went home, whilst the young Caymanian was charged with the gun offense and later found innocent. Maybe not white privileged.
So Cain was white and Seth black?
Answer that and I will give you the final answer that will shut you up.
And just how many Caymanians of any shade have absconded to Jamaica, Honduras and USA with gun convictions? Happens all the time, but most of the time it never ends up in the news. Don’t you think censorship in our local media paints a skewed picture of this?
Got some in Canada too, waiting out the statute of limitations.
Maximum term should now be 15 years for absconding and allowing those to loose their sureities. Then again these are the people we invite to live and allow to have PR and status.
They should have not allow him to leave in the first place! If it was a local he would still be Cayman hotel=northward! The system is unfair towards locals!!!! WP
As a local aren’t you are expected to know better?
If I enter any country with a gun or ammo I will be prosecuted and face full charges and fines. There should be no discounts for any foreign nationals in Cayman with guns. In fact Cayman should levy a CI$50,000.00 minimum penalty for the tourists like Meadors that enter the country with firearms. The result would have been very different if he was black, latino and from countries like Jamaica, Honduras, Bahamas. How many more caucasians that have been charged with offenses I ncluding those involving guns will continue to be allowed bail or travel before the DPP and Judiciary learn that such preferential treatment frequently results in such persons absconding from the the jurisdiction?
He could have appealed to the court on medical grounds but by my reading he did not do so. Therefore, he should face the consequences.
So what he is saying is that he has “miraculously” been diagnosed with this autoimmune disease after being found guilty. Find it hard to believe that he had this diagnosis prior to investing in his “dream retirement home” in Cayman Brac, knowing that there are no medical facilities in the Cayman Islands to deal with his health issues. DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD OF IT.
Doctors in the states are easy to buy…. Let’s not be fooled
Never going to bring him back, wrong colour.
If it was a Caymanian, he wouldn’t have been allowed to travel, to mention giving him his passport. That’s the legal and judicial set up that we have. Time for a change.
Exactly they crucify us Caymanians daily but the white man go free because of colour of skin! Disgusting this system root for the white man and foreigners made that to be a Caymanian they would have hung us this place is a disgrace
Just like that woman from the Pines. Her husband paid the stolen money back ….but she committed the crime…. and that MUST be addressed. I refuse to support the NCVO until she has been charged.. no donations from our family sorry… Heard she travels into Cayman often. The brass of some people!
CNS: The NCVO does not operate the Pines home. See the website here.
Racist
Well this maybe the best thing. If he was brought back here he would be jailed for the government to take care of. This way the government gets to keep his assets which would be punishment for him.
In a civilised country you would be jailed for racist comments.
No you wouldn’t.
Do civilised countries jail racist voters for current Presidents and referendum decisions?
Asking for a friend …
He is the best president in the history of the USA. FACT!
Wrong.
…he is also the choice for every racist voter in the USA.
FACT!
– Who
If that’s true why did they bring him here in the first place? Hardly his first posting.
I believe that the authorities will eventually bring Mr. Meadors back. What I find hard to believe is that a mature intelligent adult would move to a foreign country and not check out their firearms law before bringing in a gun.
Gun nuts in the states won’t separate from their firearms. They need it to prove their pp isn’t small.