A security guard who had pleaded guilty to sending death threats via WhatsApp to a resident of the apartment complex where she was stationed, was slapped with a $100,000 fine when she appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday.

Samantha Edwards-Smith sent a series of WhatsApp messages to a resident at the apartment complex she was stationed at after an altercation that read, “You are going to die soon…your time has come,” and, “We are going to teach you a lesson.”

Edwards Smith pled guilty to the charge of malicious communication on October 25.

READ: ‘You are going to die’: Security guard jailed for texting death threat to resident

Before the sentence was handed down, Senior Parish Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague asked Edwards-Smith if she had anything to say. Edwards-Smith proceeded to apologise to the complainant.

“I’m very sorry. I’m not a troublemaker. I’ve been doing security work for years. I apologise for making my ignorancy lead me to where I am now and I’m truly sorry for what I did. I regret everything that I said,” Edwards-Smith said.

Turning to the complainant, the judge asked if she had anything to say. The complainant said she is “interested to find out who ‘we’ is,” referencing the message that Edwards-Smith sent.

The judge agreed, and Edwards-Smith said she just the message out of “ignorancy” and that she has no friends. “It’s just my son and husband.”

Handing down the sentence, Cole-Montague informed the accused that the offence she was charged with can result in a fine being imposed or imprisonment.

However, the judge told her that given her early guilty plea, she will show leniency.

Edwards-Smith was subsequently fined $100,000 or six months imprisonment.