Cop gets two years for illegal firearm, ammunition
May 17, 2006
CONSTABLE Ricardo Cunningham of the Mobile Reserve has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
Cunningham, who represented Jamaica in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) senior athletic championships in Nassau, Bahamas in July, 2005, pleaded guilty to the charges in the Gun Court last week.
Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, who presided over the case, sentenced Cunningham to two years for illegal possession of firearm and two years for illegal possession of ammunition. However, he will serve only two years as the sentences are to run concurrently.
The court heard that the policeman was arrested in March during a police spot check along the Spanish Town Road in Kingston, when he was held with a pistol which he stole from the Mobile Reserve station.
Defensce counsel Valerie Neita-Robertson told the court that the policeman had armed himself with the firearm to protect his life, which was under threat. She argued that in December 2005, Cunningham escaped death when gunmen opened fire at him while he was driving his private motor vehicle in Allman Town, Kingston....
Author: T K Whyte
Source: Jamaica Observer
