Magistrate Judy Latchman yesterday sentenced Mark King to jail for 48 months after he finally pleaded guilty to using an ice pick in robbing a woman of her cell phone at Agricola.
According to the prosecution, on March 1 on the Agricola Public Road, King used an ice pick to rob Maria Sukdeo of an Alcatel cell phone, worth $15,000.
The court heard that Sukdeo was a passenger in a Route 42 minibus and on disembarking she was using her cell phone when the accused snatched the instrument and ran into Agricola.
The VC pursued him and was threatened by the accused with an ice pick.
When the accused last appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry she told him that she was remanding him because of the prevalence and seriousness of the offence and at that time he was unsure as to whether he wanted to plead guilty or not guilty to the charge.
The accused first pleaded not guilty then he pleaded guilty but still wanted to maintain his innocence, claiming that he did not want to waste the court’s time.
However, when he appeared yesterday before Magistrate Latchman she was about to set a date for him to return to court when he insisted that he had wanted to change his plea to guilty but was not permitted to do so previously.
The charge was subsequently read to him again and he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison.
On leaving the courtroom King said that like Nelson Mandela he would rise and since his sentence is not a 400-year one, it was not a problem.
