WB man claims he was set up over gun
Jose Sanchez
(CNS): A West Bay man facing firearms charges has denied having a gun when he went to a Bodden Town bar last summer. Jose ‘Pito’ Sanchez (29) claims that the real owner of the weapon, Sean Luke Dunbar, and his girlfriend, Ashley Terry, set him up to reduce their own culpability, and Deborah Johnson, a security officer at the bar, lied in order to get a reward. Sanchez is charged with having a handgun at the Everglo bar but the weapon was found later the same night in the possession of Dunbar. He and Terry also face gun charges but claim the weapon belonged to Sanchez, an accusation corroborated by Johnson, who was on duty at the bar.
Sanchez has denied having anything to do with the weapon and said that the traces of his DNA found on the gun must have been transferred by police or Johnson, who searched both him and Dunbar on the same night. The West Bay man, who was living in Bodden Town at the time, claimed he was in the bar with his mother and another friend, but when he went outside for a cigarette he was arrested out of the blue.
The crown says that Sanchez had tried to get into the bar with the gun. When Johnson refused him entry and the police arrived, he tried to give the weapon to Dunbar. But Dunbar refused to take it and Sanchez then pressed it on Terry. She then took the weapon and claims she put it on the ground near a car, away from the police.
After the police left with Sanchez, the couple headed home to their apartment at Chester’s, but not before Dunbar allegedly retrieved Sanchez’ gun from where Terry had hidden it.
The security guard who saw the exchange tipped off police that she had seen Terry take the weapon, and as a result the couple were arrested as they arrived at their home. A search of their appartment also turned up several ounces of ganja hidden in the cooker, ammunition and a flare-gun.
Dunbar has since been charged and admitted possession of an unlicensed firearm and drug offences, and Terry has also pleaded guilty to accessory charges. Both gave evidence for the prosecution.
However, Sanchez’ attorney, Guy Dillaway-Perry, claimed that none of the crown witnesses were credible and that they all lied about the events of the night. Dunbar was a drug dealer, he said, who used guns to protect his business and, facing seven years jail time, he had colluded in falsely accusing Sanchez in order to reduce his own sentence.
In summing up his case against Sanchez, Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Patrick Moran told the court that it was impossible for the three witnesses to have colluded because there was no opportunity for them to do so. He said Dunbar had given evidence about Sanchez on the night he was questioned before he had any idea about the security guard’s evidence and before Sanchez’ DNA was found on the gun.
Following summaries from the crown and the defense of their respective cases, Justice Charles Quin, who presided over the judge-alone trial, said he would deliver his verdict next month. If found guilty, Sanchez is facing a mandatory minimum ten years behind bars. In the meantime he has been remanded in custody.
