EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Hadlee Mc Kenzie and his co-defendant, Royden Jackson, 22, who were busted at Sand Hills, Berbice River, were each sentenced to four years imprisonment, on Tuesday, for cultivating prohibited plants. Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo imposed the custodial penalties on them, in their absence, after they were convicted of the February 20, 2010 offence at New Amsterdam Court, also in Berbice.
Evidence led at their trial revealed that the convicts were working on a farm owned by Edwin Joseph, when plain clothes policemen carried out a drug eradication exercise and arrested them.
Police Corporal Roberto Figueira, prosecuting, said hundreds of seedlings and cannabis sativa (marijuana) plants were unearthed during the raid.
McKenzie and Jackson were, initially, denied bail but Mc Kenzie petitioned the High Court and was granted pre-trial liberty on $350,000 surety while Jackson was allowed to post $150,000 in the lower court.
Mckenzie’s mother, Pauline had sworn, in an affidavit petitioning the High Court, that her son has been suffering from mental illness over a period of years and incarceration was affecting his health.