Lance Walters was on Thursday sentenced to serve a three-year jail sentence after he was found guilty of cocaine possession.
Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry handed down the sentence at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, where she found Walters guilty beyond reasonable doubt at the conclusion of a trial.
The police’s case was that on November 30, 2012, Walters, 35, of 63 Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust, had a gramme of cocaine in his possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Walters’s attorney George Thomas asked the court to exercise leniency in sentencing, since his client was the sole bread winner of his home and the father of two minor children. He also said that Walters, who he called a shopkeeper, had an unblemished record. He appealed to the court to give his client the minimum sentence.
The magistrate said in light of the circumstances, the prevalence and seriousness of the offence and the fact that it was a small amount of cocaine, she would sentence Walters to three years jail. He was also fined $30,000.
When Walters was arraigned on December 4, 2012, he had denied the charge.
At that time, Prosecutor Seon Blackman told the court that police officers on mobile patrol in Cross Street saw Walters acting in a suspicious manner and conducted a search on his person. As a result, they found a small, transparent bag which contained a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine and Walters was arrested.
