Jermaine Carroll, who is accused of causing the death of six-year-old Joseph Quallis by dangerous driving, was yesterday fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to driving the car accused of hitting the child down while it was uninsured.
If he is unable to pay the fine, he will be imprisoned for one month.
It was at the continuation of Carroll’s trial before Magistrate Judy Latchman yesterday that his attorney Adrian Thompson told the court that his client wanted to change his plea to guilty with respect to the uninsured motor vehicle charge levelled against him.
However, Carroll, of Stevedore Housing Scheme, remains on trial at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts for allegedly causing Quallis’ death by dangerous driving.
In his submissions, Thompson said that on the day in question his client had borrowed the vehicle from someone but was unaware that it was uninsured. He, however, stressed that his client “is a licensed driver.”
Magistrate Latchman then read the charge to Carroll, which stated that at Middle Road, La Penitence, Georgetown, he drove motor car PPP 5931 on June 12, without insurance for third party risk being enforced at the time. He entered a plea of guilty.
Prosecutor Sergeant Vishnu Hunt said the facts were stated in the charge and Carroll accepted them.
In an appeal for lenience and mercy in sentencing, Thompson begged the court to consider that his client had been in prison since his arraignment on June 16. Though Carroll has been granted a total of $400,000 in bail, he remains imprisoned because of his inability to post the sum. He was granted $300,000 bail for the causing death charge and $100,000 on the other charge.
After hearing counsel’s submissions, the magistrate fined Carroll $50,000 and informed him that in default he will be imprisoned for one month.
At his first appearance, Carroll had denied both charges when they were read to him.
The causing death charge states that on June 12, at Georgetown, Carroll drove the car in a manner dangerous to the public, thereby causing Quallis’ death.
The police’s case is that Carroll was proceeding west along Middle Road, La Penitence at a fast rate when he collided with the child.
Prosecutor Bharrat Mangru had stated at the first hearing that at the time of the accident the lad was standing on the southern side on a bridge.
The child was struck and pinned into the bars of a steel fence. The court was told that Quallis was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
