Seven years after 2.43 kilogrammes of marijuana was found at his home, a 37-year-old South Oropouche man has been sentenced to 30 months in jail with hard labour.
Solomon Haynes, employed as a beltman in a quarry, was found guilty by a jury in the San Fernando Second Assizes where he was on trial for possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
Haynes had opted to have the matter heard in the High Court after the option to either have his matter heard in the magistrates court or High Court was put to him in the San Fernando Magistrates Court where he had first appeared.
The maximum sentence for the offence in the magistrates court is $25,000 or five years imprisonment while in the High Court the maximum penalty is $50,000 or ten years hard labour.
Haynes was arrested on November 22, 2007 after 16 officers, including PC Rudy Seecharan and Cpl Richard Frazer, accompanied by members of the Canine Unit, searched his Partap Trace home for arms and ammunition.
During the search, the police found the drugs in a plastic bag under some clothes. Haynes, who was represented by attorney Ainsley Lucky, claimed the police had planted the drugs on him.
In asking Justice David Harris for a non-custodial sentence, Lucky said Haynes had four previous convictions, a common-law wife and three young children, ages five, three and two.
Noting Haynes was charged for this offence in 2007 and in 2011 he was charged with another offence for marijuana possession, state prosecutor Trevor Jones did not agree with a non-custodial sentence.
“At what point is the State to believe he has learnt his lesson?” Jones asked.