Court rejects claim man found gun in porta-potty
(CNS): Adwen Anthony Simpson (37) is facing at least seven years behind bars after the court rejected his argument that there were exceptional circumstance relating to his admitted possession of a loaded .38 revolver found in his car when he was stopped by police last October on Shedden Road. Simpson had claimed that he had just found the gun in a blue porta-potty at a fish fry in George Town and was on his way to the police station to hand the gun in when he was pulled over.
In an effort to dodge the mandatory minimum sentence of seven years Simpson’s lawyer had argued that his possession was only temporary and exceptional. But as she delivered her judgement on Friday, Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop said she didn’t believe Simpson’s “constantly shifting account”.
Before being charged over the possession of this unlawful gun, Simpson was a working family man with no previous convictions, and the court heard that he has an impeccable record at the prison since being held on remand. However, the judge said she did not find his account credible, describing it as an “unconvincing tale” that “bordered on ludicrous”.
When Simpson was stopped by police, despite later claiming he was on his way to the station, he never mentioned the gun to the officers who found the weapon hidden under the car seat. After it was discovered he told the officer he knew nothing about it.
When he was interviewed by the police, he told them he had found the gun on the floor of a blue portable toilet at a fish fry on Eclipse Drive in Central George town shortly before he was stopped by the officers. He claimed that he had no phone on him at the time and so had picked up the weapon with the intention of going to the police station.
But when officers checked the venue, they found there was no porta-potty at the site. He later claimed he had found the gun by a cabana where he had gone to use the toilet. The judge noted a number of other inconsistencies about Simpson’s stories between his arrest, his police interview and his claims in court, especially over whether or not he ever actually went to the bathroom and whether he unloaded the weapon and reloaded it.
There were also other inconsistencies in the claims made by Simpson when he was interviewed by police and when he appeared in court, which Justice McDonald-Bishop found were efforts to bolster what she found was a false claim that he was only ever in temporary possession of the loaded gun. The judge also pointed out that when he was stopped by police, he did not cooperate with the officers. If the claim he was intending to hand it in had been accurate, he should have immediately offered up information to those officers about the gun.
Concluding that the circumstances surrounding his possession of the weapon were “wholly unexceptional”, the judge adjourned the case for a sentencing hearing next month.
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This is the worst aspect of the whole gun crime issue. The people with guns have lower IQs than the number of bullets you can keep in a revolver.
Actual idiots are the ones with guns…both illegally, and the ones in RCIPS. Think I’m joking? check out a random firearms officer’s statements.
I give up.
What happened to the 10 yr minimum sentence for illegal possession of a fire arm?
Its still there. However, its a minimum of 7 years if you plead guilty. And can be less still if you successfully plead extenuating or exceptional circumstances – the get out used for those US tourists with guns or ammo in the bags. In this case the 7 years was theoretically the minimum if Simpson had pled guilty – but he didn’t. The article would perhaps be more accurately worded if it said he attempted to avoid the minimum of 10 years as he didn’t plead guilty and claim extenuating circumstances.
When you find a gun do you a) phone the police and tell them or b) hide it under the seat of your car and not tell the police about it when they stop you “on the way to the station”?
To say nothing of the fact that when they search the car and find it you say you didn’t know it was there.
No doubt this chaos sentence will reflect not only his credibility but his stupidity! Could have got a third off for pleading guilty because there was no way he was going to be acquitted with a story like that.
Surely he is taking the piss.
Pretty shitty story if you ask me.
Should be given extra time for stupidity
Kids, there is a teachable moment here: If you see something fishie, report it to police. Square grouper, murder weapon or whatever. Only a dummy would go out of their way to add their own fresh DNA and print match to it. Surprised ballistics wasn’t run to match the weapon to every unsolved criminal event linked to it.
Exactly. Need to watch more Miami csi. This guy sound like a modern day aesop fable.
Private sector worker. Says it all.
Huh?
Not smart to be uncooperative when you have a pistol under your seat. Wonder what he was stopped for.
Maybe because someone told the police?
His reply just tickles me sorry. He found it in a potty? 🤣🤣🤣
Deportation?
If he’s Jamaican yes he can be deported.
If he is one of thousands of ‘Caymanians’ fathered by a Jamaican, or one of Mac’s status grant Jamaicans…no so sure.
Cabinet status grants can be revoked – by the Cabinet. But only if they are committed to the interests of these Islands.
Cabinet lacks the intestinal fortitude to do so.
They really can’t, especially for anyone with accrued article 8 rights.
And yet the board can happily revoke from anyone they have granted status to? Go check your legal knowledge.
Again, they can’t or at least it is realistically all but impossible for similar reasons.
Got stopped and arrested while on the way to turn in the gun. … I hate it when that happens.
Especially when you hide it under the seat and forget to mention it to the officers when they stop you.