Edward Hubert McCollin, the security guard who was charged last year with unlawful possession of a submachine gun that police say he tried to stash in a septic tank, was yesterday sentenced to three years in jail for the crime.
McCollin, 37, of Lot 67 South Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara, was charged in June, 2015, with having an Intratec 9mm submachine gun as well as eight casings without being the holder of a firearm licence.
McCollin had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to him last year.
After a year-long trial, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan yesterday said that she had found McCollin guilty because his account failed to cast any doubt on the prosecution’s case.
Before his sentencing, McCollin reiterated his claim that he never had a gun in his possession. “I was just sitting. The police saw me sitting on the bridge and the woman told them that I had a gun,” he said.
The magistrate noted that credible witnesses provided by the prosecution satisfied the court that on the day in question McCollin did have a firearm in his possession.
She said too that according to police witnesses who testified at the trial, after hearing what appeared to be gunshots coming from East La Penitence, they went in the direction from where the shots were coming and encountered a woman who told them something. The woman also showed them spent shells that were on the ground and which appeared to have been fired from a gun that the accused had.
Police subsequently pursued McCollin, who they say started to run up the road after seeing them approaching. He threw the firearm in a septic tank in a nearby yard. The police, when they caught McCollin, took him to the septic tank and retrieved the gun.
Police prosecutor Deniro Jones noted that McCollin was previously sentenced for a similar offence.
Chief Magistrate McLennan sentenced McCollin to three years in prison on each of the two charges against him but the sentences will run concurrently. She also fined him $50,000.
