Kenroy Bibby, a 21-year old Labourer of New Montrose, is into the first month of a nine-month jail sentence, having been found guilty of criminal trespass on the property of Sheron Garraway of New Montrose.
Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett handed down the sentence on Thursday 3rd February after the matter had been adjourned from Monday 31st January 2022, at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court.
Garraway, a 42-year-old journalist, testified that on Sunday 23rd May, 2021 she was awakened around 1:30am by voices and tapping sounds coming from outside her bedroom window.
Upon rising and approaching the living room, she saw a shadow of a person through the window in the porch.
She shouted for the person to leave her premises and warned that she was calling the police.
Garraway told the court that she went closer to the window, turned on her front porch light, and was astonished to see someone with a cutlass squeezing into a corner of the porch.
Not knowing if the trespasser had a pistol, she backed away and shouted again for the perpetrator to leave her dwelling house.
To hear astonishment, as per her evidence, the media practitioner testified that the perpetrator then said, “I want tell you something; I have something to tell you”.
She shouted to the perpetrator that he could not have something to tell her at 1:30 in the morning and informed him that she had called the police.
The figure then briskly moved from the porch and when Garraway looked through the window, she realized that she knew the perpetrator as Bibby.
She admitted that she was astounded to see that in addition to having a cutlass in one hand, he had a hammer in the other.
The police arrived on the scene within ten minutes of the call, took a statement and scouted the premises.
Corporal Chevron Laborde told the court that his team of officers went to Bibby’s home. His mother informed them that he was not there and in fact, he had not been there for some time.
Corporal Nikeisha Andrews, who was also part of the investigation, highlighted that Garraway was able to clearly identify Bibby at the police station when he was apprehended.
When Prosecutor Corlene Samuel questioned Bibby as to his whereabouts that early morning, he insisted that he was home all night.
Magistrate Burnett directed the defendant Bibby to respond to the testimony made by Garraway but Bibby seemed detached as he was delayed in his reply.
The Magistrate asked Bibby if he was feeling alright, to which Bibby said he was “thinking plenty” and that he didn’t feel good.
Magistrate Burnett then adjourned the hearing to Thursday 3rd February when, before being sentenced, Bibby denied that he trespassed on Garraway’s property.
The evidence showed otherwise and Burnett handed down his sentence.
Bibby is no stranger to the law having been charged in August 2021 with Aggravated Burglary and Intimidation, this after he allegedly entered the dwelling house of a 61-year-old retired Principal of New Montrose as a trespasser, while being armed with a cutlass, and stole some EC$3,600. (SG)