Former police constable Zackrie Latham will spend the next nine months behind bars, after being convicted Tuesday on charges of burglary and official corruption, stemming from the disappearance of ammunition from the Georgetown Police Station early last year.
Latham, who was attached to the Georgetown Police Station as a police officer when a quantity of firearms and ammunition had gone missing from the Armory, was charged with that between January 1 and April 1, 2021, he entered the Armory of the Georgetown Police Station, as a trespasser, and stole one box of .40 ammunition, and entering that Armory as a trespasser, between April 30, and May 1, 2021, and stole three boxes of ammunition.
Latham was also charged with, being employed in the government service as a member of the police force, he corruptly obtained property for himself on account of an action done by him, in the discharge of the duties of his office.
Magistrate Zoila Ellis-Browne, sitting at the Calliaqua Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, convicted Latham of all three charges, and sentenced him to nine months in prison on each charge, to run concurrently.
Ellis-Browne had reserved her decision, following closing arguments, on November 8, from Crown Counsel Maria Jackson-Richards, who led the case for the Prosecution, and Latham’s lawyer Grant Connell.
Latham was initially slapped with 13 charges, but he was freed of ten of those at the Calliaqua Magistrate’s Court on May 17, 2022, after Ellis-Browne upheld a no case submission from Connell.
Five of those charges were for firearm possession, one for ammunition possession, two for the sale of firearms, one for the sale of a magazine with ammunition, and one for money laundering.
Latham was the last person before the Court, on charges in connection with the matter.
The others, Avi King, Meshach Dublin, both 26, and former national footballer Myron Samuel of Layou, all received prison sentences, but Samuel was released after appealing to the Mercy Committee on medical grounds.
Source : The Vincentian