THERE was heightened drama in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last week after a man who had just paid over $190,000 struck the man who had gone there to collect it, just as they were exiting the courtroom.

Aston Bailey, who slapped the man on the back of his neck while saying “A unuh mek people kill unuh,” attempted to escape by running away. He was taken into custody and charged with assault.

Interestingly, Bailey was the defendant in a case against Andrew Rose whose goods he destroyed during a dispute over $1.3 million owed to him for scrap metal. The man who was struck was Rose’s secretary.

Last Tuesday when the matter was mentioned, Bailey, who had previously agreed to repay Rose’s money, told Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey that he had paid “something like a million” when she asked him how much of the money he had already paid.

But Rose said that he was told by his secretary that Bailey had only paid $400,000 and this was confirmed in court by the secretary.

Bailey then got upset, stating that he had paid over more than that and had the receipts to show that the secretary had signed for the money.

But the magistrate told him that he had to pay the amount stated by the accused.

“I am not paying that, Ms Pusey,” he said.

“Who do you think you are talking to?” Pusey remarked. “I don’t like when people ginnal me. I ask you how much you pay the man and you ago tell me something like a million, what figure is that?

“You have to come to court prepared and you have disrespected the court. You are going to pay him what he says,” she added.

The matter was then set for Friday and when it was mentioned, Bailey’s attorney, Laury Smikle, told the court that her client had the receipts to show that the secretary had collected more than $400,000.

But this was challenged by the secretary who told the court that he had signed for the first payment of $500,000 but Bailey, after checking the money, realised that he had overpaid him and took back the money and gave him $400,000 as that was what they had agreed on for the first payment. The receipt for the $500,000 was never cancelled, he said.

Bailey, however, denied his explanation. “How me fi over pay a man that me owe $1.3 million?” he asked.

The magistrate then stood down the matter for them to work out the issue with the help of an officer. When the matter was called up, Pusey told Bailey that he should pay half of the $500,000 along with the remaining of $300,697, and he did.

Following that, the charges against both Bailey and Rose were withdrawn.

Religious dispute causes biting

There was also laughter in the court last week when a Rastafarian and another man appeared before the court for biting each other over a disagreement while discussing religion.

Kaydon Richards, and the Rastafarian, Omar Gray, both appeared in court on a charge of unlawful wounding.

When the magistrate asked the men what was the cause of the dispute, Richards said: “Him come to me with some unnecessary argument.”

He said the argument escalated into a fight during which Gray bit him.

But Gray quickly interjected: “A him bite me first and me bite him back,” sparking laughter in the court.

“How long oonu plan to continue this carnivorous affair?” Pusey then asked amidst laughter.

Gray further told the court that Richards was always “warring” him over his religious beliefs and had gone for his machete, chopping him in his hand after biting him.

“Your Honour, him tell me say him ago trim me,” he also complained.

“We have to put a stop to this. Either you both pay me or stay with me,” she said to them.

But both men told her that they did not have any money to pay and indicated that they both had some difficulties that prevented them from working.

“So wa me must do, unuh too poor to pay and unuh too weak to work,” the magistrate said.

She then told them that she was going to sentence them to 40 hours of community service which both men quickly accepted.

“When me fe start?” Gray asked, before Pusey pointed out that they would be taken into custody and sentenced to two years if they did not complete the hours.

“There is to be no discussion of religion or politics while oonu working,” Pusey then warned the men.

Cruel sisters burn another sister with hot spoon

Two sisters who were hauled before the court for burning their younger sister with a hot spoon on sections of her body were both fined $20,000 each after they pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm on Friday.

The sisters, Shanique Wright, 26, and Jodian Henry, 22 , both of Iron River, in Golden Spring, St Andrew, will both serve six months in prison if the fine is not paid.

The mother of the young women, Alena Walker Sterling, who was also implicated in the matter after she had refused to report the incident and to take the nine-year-old child to seek medical attention, was fined $10,000 and will also serve six months if the fine is not paid.

The incident reportedly occurred after the complainant used a hot spoon to burn Wright’s son.

Wright then reportedly held down the complainant, while Henry used the spoon to burn the child all over her body, causing portions of her skin to peel.

The court heard also that the child was not taken to see the doctor until her wounds got infected and she had to spend 11 days in hospital.

Sterling, pleading guilty to cruelty to a child, told the court that she was confused when she learnt about the incident and that she did not report the incident as she did not want her daughters to get in trouble with the law.

She also told the court that she did not take the child to the doctor because she did not have any money at the time.

‘Necessaries’ cause man to steal phone

A young man who claimed that he robbed a woman of her Samsung Galaxy cellular phone because he wanted to buy “certain necessaries”, was slapped with a three-month prison sentence when he appeared in court.

Shanrick Nugent was arrested and charged with robbery with aggravation after he held up the complainant with a knife and robbed her of her phone valued at $45,000.

On Tuesday when he appeared in court, he pleaded guilty but told the court he stole the phone out of a need for cash.

“I just get into a youth programme and just through certain necessaries that I need, that is the reason why I took the phone,” he said.

“You know how much things I needed when I was a young girl in university? I didn’t have all the things I need. You think I could just hold up somebody and take away their phone?” said the magistrate.

The magistrate then asked Nugent if he was ever charged before for any other offence and he told the court that he was charged for rape last year and was offered bail on $150,000.

Following his admission, he was then sentenced to three months in prison.

Woman shocked by six-month prison sentence

A woman who tried to smuggle half-a-pound of ganja into the Half-Way-Tree police lock-up in a box of food was sent into a state of shock after she was hit with a six-month prison sentence and fined $1,600.

Aldene Palmer was arrested and charged for possession of ganja, dealing in ganja and introducing contraband into a lock-up after she went to the jail with the food and attempted to flee when the ganja was detected.

Attorney Diane Jobson, in Palmer’s defence, told the court that someone had given her client the package to deliver and that she did not know what was inside.

She also told the court that her client was not running but was trying to locate the person who had given her the package.

Jobson begged the magistrate not to sentence her client to prison and to give her a suspended sentence since she had already spent “five sorry days in jail” which seemed like five months.

“Nooo! Absolutely not!” said Pusey before sentencing Palmer to six months for introducing the contraband in the lock-up, six months for dealing in ganja and $1,600 or 30 days for possession of ganja. The sentences are to run concurrently if the fine is not paid.

“You caa carry half-pound a ganja in de lock-up, it can’t work,” Pusey said. “Bringing ganja into a lock-up is like bringing obeah to church,” she added.