Grocery store armed robbers jailed for 7+ years

(CNS): Randon Odell Davis (26) and Lincoln Donovan Sibron (22), both Jamaican nationals, were sent to jail on Friday for more than seven years after being convicted in June last year of armed robbery. The pair pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and the possession of an imitation gun regarding a stick-up in February 2024 at Vidette’s Grocery, aka the ‘Pink Shop’, and the JN Money Transfer kiosk there on Reverend Blackman Road, just yards from the West Bay Police Station.

Justice Cheryll Richards found that the crime involved a degree of planning as the two robbers had hired a car to use as their getaway vehicle and had timed the robbery just as the money transfer window was closing but before the armoured van arrived to collect the cash.

The men, who were wearing masks, demanded and stole at gunpoint around CI$26,000, mostly from JN Money, as well as cash from the grocery till and two packs of cigarettes. But despite the planning, they were quickly tracked down and arrested.

With the help of members of the public, who were commended by the court, the RCIPS first tracked down Sibron, who was found hiding in a shed at the rear of a house in West Bay. Police then found Davis hiding in the bushes near a water treatment tank. Although he tried to run, police caught up with him, and he was also arrested that same night.

The police found over CI$15,000 in various banknotes in his trousers, secured with staples and collated in the same way the JN Money transfer clerk had wrapped the money for collection.

Soon afterwards, police found what they suspected was the getaway car abandoned not far from the robbery. Inside, they found an open pack of the Rothmans cigarettes, some cash and a torn portion of the money transfer deposit slip. Sibron’s fingerprints were found on the rearview mirror and one side of the pack of cigarettes. Davis’s fingerprints were found on the car doors.

Although both men initially denied the charges, they changed their pleas a few months later and admitted their crimes. Sibron was unemployed at the time and did not have a work permit to be here. Davis was working as a janitor, but having recently become a father, his living expenses were outstripping his earnings.

Neither of them had previous convictions, which, alongside their guilty pleas and some mitigation, was taken into consideration by the judge. Based on the circumstances of the crime and the sentencing guidelines, the judge arrived at a period of seven years and three months for the robberies to run concurrently.

They were also both sentenced to 30 months for the use of an imitation firearm, which will also run concurrently with the robbery sentence. The cash found on Davis was formally seized and will be returned to JN Money.