Twenty-seven-year-old Dequan King who admitted in court to being a part of the 2021 Kitty gold heist and receiving $3 million from the proceeds was yesterday sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.
King of Lot 23 Sixth Street, Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara (ECD), made his second appearance in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon before Principal Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus, where King’s probation report was read by a Probation Officer. After evaluating the report, the magistrate sentenced King to 30 months each on four counts of robbery under arms. The sentences will run concurrently.
According to the probation report, King was deprived of a stable childhood since his mother abandoned him at an early age and his grandmother, to whom he was given for maintenance, also left him. The officer said that King related that he has no knowledge of his father since he never met him. After being left alone, close family friends took him under their care and nurtured him. Attempts to have him gain a primary education were continuously interrupted, eventually stopping at Grade Four as King frequently moved from home to home. King told the probation officer that he never got the opportunity to attain a secondary education but considered himself “semi-literate.”
As time went by and as he transitioned into adulthood, he worked at various places until he was assisted by one of his employers to purchase a car to perform taxi work and it was during the said taxi work he became a suspect in the 2021 gold heist. The probation officer also said that during her interview with persons considered close to King, they noted that although he grew up without much parental support, he was always surrounded by important persons of society. They were all surprised to learn that he was involved in the Kitty gold heist. After listening to the probation report, Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus then asked the prosecutor for her opinion and the prosecutor suggested a three-year sentence, given that the defendant had been on the run for over a year and that he pleaded guilty to all four of the charges.
According to the magistrate, the two and a half years sentences, which will run concurrently, were based on her consideration that he had pleaded guilty and for time spent on remand awaiting the probation report. The magistrate said that the sentence was appropriate based on the evidence that the crime was premeditated and planned by the suspects, including King, the quantity of articles that were stolen and that a dangerous weapon, a gun, was used. When asked if he had anything to say, King told the magistrate that he was very sorry and begged for her leniency.
King, who fled Guyana after the robbery was nabbed by Surinamese authorities on October 9th and handed over to the Guyana Police Force. He was charged on October 17th.
The four charges brought against the defendant stated that on August 5th of 2021 at Wallison Enterprise, Lot 23 Gordon Street, Kitty, Georgetown, while being armed with a dangerous weapon, to wit a gun, and acting in concert with other persons, he robbed Wallison Enterprise of 60 ounces of raw gold worth $20 million and $38 million in cash. He was also charged with robbing Francis Santos Nunes of one gold chain valued $150,000, one gold ring valued $60,000 and $14,000 in cash. The other charge stated that during the gold heist, he robbed Fernanda Carmichael of one iPhone valued at $350,000 and Wallison DaSilva of a cellular phone worth $160,000.
He had pleaded guilty to all four of those charges. On his first court appearance, he had told the court that he was called to do a “pick-up” at Norton Street. After doing the “pick-up”, King said the passengers told him that they were heading to Wallison Enterprise to purchase gold and as such he complied and went to the destination and was ordered to wait. He said that a few minutes later, he saw the “passengers” running out of the store with a bag and a gun and they told him to drive to ‘B’ Field Sophia. He said while there he asked the men what they had done and they replied that they had just committed a robbery. He was then given $3m by the men. King said he fled to the interior, and then to Suriname, since he heard that persons were looking for him and he became fearful for his life.
