“I plead insanity,” screamed Randy Samuels as he entered the courtroom at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, where he appeared on a charge of snatching a girl’s cell phone.
The ruckus he created in the courtroom had the police, lawyers, prosecutors and the reporters scampering from their seats, while Magistrate Priya Beharry fled the bench.
Six policemen had to forcefully escort Samuels to the dock of the court.
The magistrate, who had calmly read a larceny from the person charge a short while before the commotion, had told Samuels that he was accused of stealing a $41,000 cell phone from Shinelle Rodriguez on August 14. She then asked Samuels, who was standing in handcuffs in the prisoner’s dock, “How do you plead?”
Samuels then started to scream, “I plead insanity! I plead insanity or not guilty ‘cause I don’t know about that phone, I need a lawyer. I ain’t gah no phone.”
He then told the magistrate that, “I mad. I does use a tablet name valium suh don’t let me nerves get at me.” He then shouted that he was in jail when the incident he is accused of occurred, and “I can’t go back to jail.”
Samuels then manoeuvred himself to place his hands from in front where they were handcuffed to behind him by placing them under his feet. When he had succeeded in doing that he broke open the handcuffs, setting his right hand free, all the while saying, “Yah see how ah strong, is dah devil inside ah me!”
However, the commotion escalated when the magistrate told Samuels that he would be remanded to prison and he would have to return to court on September 11.
“No man, de seventh is meh birthday, lemme comeback then nah?” asked Samuels.
When the magistrate declined to change the dates Samuels struggled with the cuffs and afterwards held onto his vest, telling the magistrate, “I plead insanity, I cud strip naked in here, cause ah mad.”
As the magistrate ordered that Samuels be escorted out of the court, he held on to the bars of the dock and asked, “All I wan know is if I geh remand, or if I going to jail or to an insanity ward?”
The magistrate did not answer and about six policemen who were standing in the dock pulled Samuels away but he held on even tighter to the bars and started to struggle and scream at the lawmen.
Attorneys Sase Gunraj and Sonia Paraj as well as the reporters had to scamper from their seats since they had been seated close to the area of the commotion. The magistrate was also forced to flee the bench when it seemed like the police were not gaining control of the situation.
The uproar continued for about fifteen minutes before Samuels was finally thrown into the chute of the court.
