Robber gets 39 months for Christmas carjacking
(CNS): Gerardo George Connolly (32) has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail for robbery in relation to a car-jacking in a supermarket car-park on Christmas Day evening where he had stabbed his victim with a screwdriver. Connolly, who was convicted earlier this year, has a long rap sheet dating back to when he was a teenager.
In 2017, he was sentenced to seven years for a robbery at a grocery store in Bodden Town, where he had stolen the shopowner’s car. Released last year, he committed the Christmas Day carjacking while still on parole. As a result, Connolly will have to serve the time he has left for the 2017 robbery before this latest sentence kicks in.
During the heist, the victim was stabbed but was not seriously injured. However, he stated in a victim impact statement that he was traumatised by the robbery. He had pulled into Kirk’s car park on Christmas Day evening last year to take a nap but was awakened at around 7:30pm by footsteps. Suddenly, a man pulled the car door open and stabbed him in the chest.
The victim then got out of the car and fought with the robber, grabbing him and the screwdriver. At that point, a woman jumped into the driver’s seat of the man’s car, and Connolly yelled at her to give him “the gun so I can shoot the boy”. The victim let go of the assailant, who got into the car, and the pair drove off.
The woman has never been apprehended. However, the next morning, the police tracked the car down and arrested Shane William Junior McLean, who was in the car when they found it. He was later charged with handling stolen goods and stood trial alongside Connolly but was acquitted.
Connolly’s DNA was found in the car and on the screwdriver used in the robbery. As a result, he was charged and then found guilty. However, he has continued to deny that he was responsible for the crime. He accepted that what happened to the victim was terrible and agreed with the crown that there was no need to call the man as a witness for cross-examination, allowing his statements to be read to the court and saving him the ordeal of testifying.
Justice Kirsty-Ann Gunn, who presided over the case, took that into consideration when she sentenced him on Thursday, along with his “turbulent childhood” after his mother was sent to jail when he was ten years old. Connolly soon fell into the criminal justice system and struggled with drug addiction. Nevertheless, there have been periods of his life where he has been sober and held down jobs.
Considering all of the circumstances, especially his 21 previous convictions, at least seven of which involved dishonesty and included the most recent conviction for robbery, the judge arrived at a sentence of 39 months. That sentence will commence once the parole board confirms the end of the previous sentence, which could be as early as January next year or June 2026.
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He’ll be back on the street in 18 months. Then back to “work”.
Three years and three months for carjacking and attempted murder. … On the tail of just having gotten out of Northward for similar sentence … on the tail of a lifetime rap sheet of 21 convictions. Let that sink in. Not just 21 criminal acts, but 21 times he was actually caught, prosecuted and sentenced.
Three years and three months? What next when he gets out — slap the other wrist and a stern shake of the head?
cayman loves crime
So in 2017 he robs someone and steals their car, and gets 7 years. In 2017, whilst still on parole for the previous offence, he steals someone’s car again, but this time he stabs the victim as well. And get half the sentence? Really struggling to understand how the judge got there.
Penal Code s242. (1) A person commits robbery if that person steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, that person uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.
(2) A person who commits robbery is liable to imprisonment for life.
How on earth does he get 7 years first time around and 39 months the second time? Doesnt make sense.
CNS – did the judge explain the sentence rationale?
He was an a**hole from the time he was a little boy in school.
It’s very sad when children are born to unfit parents.
He grew up without his father mother was only 15yrs old when she had him his grandma raised him but could only do so much…. from teen days he was in mix up
How the hell do you only get 3 years for all those charges? That’s got to be attempted murder.
With 20 previous convictions, the man has made clear he’s a danger to society.
It’s examples like this which seriously lower the public’s faith in our judicial system. What a mess…
Don’t worry, the sentence would have been a lot higher if he wasn’t a generational Caymanian.
And probably a lot lower is there was a jury involved.
Attempted murder good god 3 yrs what a laugh
Its not attempted murder. You would need an intent to commit murder – the wounds apparently not that serious, and the use of the weapon is to stop the victim grappling with him and to steal the car, rather than kill him. However, its a distinction with no practical difference. Wounding someone with intent to avoid capture carries a maximum sentence of life, as does using violence in the commission of the robbery. The issue is not with the charge, but the judges decision to not only go nowhere ear the max, but award a sentence lesser than the last time he was convicted for robbery. Completely bemused. DPP surely has to appeal this.
This, John John, Mac, WTF Cayman?
WTF? He was a wanted fugitive earlier this year and threatened arresting officers with a machete! Not enough hugs as a kid? Well, he’s also had 21 prior conviction second chances. It’s time to put this guy away into long term storage for real.
damn ediot why una dont try look a job?????????
SHameful. Will DPP appeal?!!
Was it because of bad policing or sloppy prosecution?
Attempted murder it should have been!
We need local Judges who are not desensitized to Mayhem.
These people want Cayman to collapse.
This guy will be out by this Christmas probably..with time served.
Gerardo use this time to get it right. Bless up!
Sick!
Need to check his head to see if he has mud or a brain in it. His time will run out.
Bless up? To the all the victims that serve a life sentence through these vile non humans!
Sickeningly lenient.
That is a ridiculously lenient sentence for a dangerous criminal with 20 previous convictions particularly when 3 years turns into a few months with the current mandatory early release program. Not much wonder that criminals have no fear of prosecution. – They almost always get away with their crimes and even when they get convicted the sentence is a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle.
Earlier this year as a wanted violent fugitive, threatened arresting officers with a machete on arrest! Who is the relative that has bought this leniency? Crazy.
Long rap sheet, stabbed the victim with a screwdriver, and only gets 36 months???
XXXX
Of which he will probably have to spend only 1/3 of his sentence ..
No wonder we have so many repeat offenders, light slap on the wrist sentences in a resort prison obviously not a deterrent.
If the new planned $200,000,000 resort prison is finished , without bankrupting Cayman, the criminals will be offending just to get in.!.
And everyone complaining that a new school is costing $50million, but nobody seems bothered we’re spending 4 times that much so our criminals will be better fed and more comfortable…?
They’ll certainly have a more comfortable life, and be far better fed and cared for than the majority of working citizens who will be paying for it.
You really willing to pay $200 Million plus ongoing expenses for that..?
For sure they will be more comfortably housed and very well fed in the new resort than they would be on the outside.
Hey, what’s to lose, a few months relief from having to look after yourself would be a great attraction, especially for our imported POS’.
You really want to pay for that..?
$200m? Where is your evidence of this? Resort Prison? You seriously need to give your head a wobble if you think a new prison will cost that much, and even more of a wobble if you think prison is a resort. You clearly know nothing!
Budget is $160,000,000…to start with. Given the governments history of inability to have proper spending controls on construction budgets, $200M by the time it’s finished, is a conservative estimate.
Research the new woke attitudes to incarceration, where prison is a place for those who didn’t get enough hugs as children….
With all due respect, I am familiar with the generalities of modern penal policy in many developed countries around the world. I became interested after being a victim of crime. We are not in the days of incarcerating and treating people like animals, that as history will show, only serves to lead people to act like animals. Cayman, and all of us living here, is surely better than that?
I am aware of what the budget is for the new prison but you are just guessing at what the eventual costs might be although I do agree on the governments track record regarding capital projects.
I think you will find that a new prison, although expensive (well they are aren’t they – its not a house that is being built but a maximum security facility), will possibly come in at nearer to $100m if you look at what larger prisons in other countries have cost.
Throwing money to repair the prisons at Fairbanks and Northward is simply bad economics. They are unfit for purpose and the ‘just spend $10m consultancy fees’ (which is another likely made up number) I keep reading about, at least according to my sources, would not make the slightest difference to facilities that were condemned 12 years ago. I suppose it would be similar to dressing a pig in a $1m dress on a pig, it might look better but it’s still a pig!
Prisons always stimulate lively discussion and this one will be no different. I think we can agree on that, if not much else.
8.38. I appreciate your measured responses, and as far as costs and fees go, I can only add “let’s wait and see”.
1.00 pm..I share your amazement that a prison could cost that much, or worse, that an already rudderless almost bankrupt government would even consider spending that amount when $10Million would fix Northward.
$10m ain’t fixing that place.
22 priors, and stabbed someone on Christmas Day to steal their Mazda, then went on run and swung machete at cops!
Should be 10 years minimum. Absolute disgrace!