Keyon King, the former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Sergeant who admitted to his role in August’s $58 million Wallison Enterprise gold heist at Kitty, was yesterday sentenced to serve the next three years in jail.
King, 32, was sentenced by Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus in Georgetown to three years for each of the four charges to which he had admitted. The sentences will be served concurrently and as a result he would only serve three years in total.
King had pleaded guilty to the charges last month and blamed pressures to provide for his family for driving him to participate in the crimes.
King was charged along with Delroy Jackson, 37, and Peon Lee, 35, over the heist. It was alleged that the three men, while being armed with guns, robbed Francis Santos Lumes of $38 million in cash and 60 ounces of raw gold worth $20 million. They are also charged with robbing Lumes of a $140,000 gold chain, a $60,000 ring and $14,000 in cash.
Additionally, they were charged with robbing cashier Fernanda Carmichael of an iPhone, worth $350,000, and goldsmith William Batista Da Silva of a $60,000 phone.
When he was arraigned in August, an unrepresented King initially pleaded guilty to the first charge and denied the others, while his co-accused both pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Following an adjournment, King changed his plea to not guilty.
At a hearing held last month, King again confessed his guilt to the court. A remorseful King told the court that during the 15 years he had been a soldier, he had been denied a promotion and was even demoted. He said that he struggled to maintain his family and noted that he was the sole breadwinner. He said that he had tried to stay on a “straight and narrow” path in life but added that he was under tremendous pressure. For this reason, he did not think twice when he was told of the plans to commit the robbery.
Police said that the bandits entered the Wallison Enterprise compound under the pretense of going to sell gold. Once inside the building, they held two employees, the 20-year-old cashier and the 45-year-old goldsmith, at gunpoint and ordered them to the safe, which contained the valuables.
