The Guyana Police Force has intentions of appealing the recent sentencing of two University of Guyana students to community service after they were found guilty of gun-point robbery, sources say.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that the sentencing handed down by Magistrate Judy Latchman is of concern for the force.
A source assured that the matter will be appealed and that a file will soon be sent to the DPP’s Chambers.
Darien Best, 19, of 429 Guyhoc Park, Georgetown and Joel De Mendonca, 20, of 17 Providence Park, East Bank Demerara (EBD) were earlier this week found guilty of two charges of armed robbery by Magistrate Latchman after a trial.
Another youth, Morris Gibson, 21, was also charged jointly with the duo but he had the case against him dismissed earlier in the trial.
The charges against them stated that on January 24th, 2014, at Robb Street, while being armed with a gun, they robbed Mohanlall Narine of a quantity of cellphones, valued at $8.968 million, and which were the property of Golyn and Sons Fashion. It also stated that on the same day, the men robbed Narine of two diamond rings, valued at $500,000 and a Samsung Galaxy cellphone, valued at $130,000, while armed with a gun.
On July 18th, Best and De Mendonca were found guilty as charged for the offences but sentencing was deferred pending a probation report. When the probation report was read on Monday the magistrate ruled that after taking into consideration all the evidence given throughout the trial, she was satisfied that the prosecution had proved a prima facie case against the duo.
After taking into consideration the fact that Best and DeMendonca are both young men, that they are first time offenders and also the fact that the probation report highly favoured them she sentenced the duo to six hours of community service for the next 25 Mondays. In addition, they were also ordered to seek maximum counselling considered fit by the probation officer. Should they fail to abide by the conditions of their sentence they will face 48 months in jail for each charge.
Best is to perform his community service at the Palms while De Mendonca will be at the National Library.
