A WEEPING young mother threw herself at the mercy of the court before being convicted on drug charges on Thursday.
What was supposed to have been just a three-day, first-time trip to The Bahamas has turned out to be more than two years. Linda Latoya Reynolds, 22, a native of Guyana, was arraigned yesterday before Magistrate Andrew Forbes on one count of possession of drugs with intent to supply and another count of importation of dangerous drugs.
The charges stem from an incident on May 23, when Reynolds was searched at the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA). She had a connecting flight from Suriname to Jamaica and ended up here in the capital. During the search, officers discovered two pounds and 15 ounces of cocaine, packaged and taped under a stocking cap that was placed under a long wig on Reynolds’s head.
Reynolds was subsequently arrested. The young mother pleaded guilty to the charges, but begged Magistrate Forbes to consider the fact that she is the mother of a four-year-old she left at home in Suriname with a friend. She said she tried hard to find a job and she had no food to provide for her child.
This led her to ask a female friend to borrow money. However, the friend in turn told Reynolds that she had a job for her to do, which turned out to be trafficking cocaine to The Bahamas. Reynolds said the plan was for her to meet a female at Orange Hill in New Providence to exchange the cocaine for $2,000. When asked by the magistrate if she gave any thought to the consequences of being caught here or in Jamiaca, Reynolds said “no.” Meanwhile, her attorney Jairim Mangra, asked the court to consider that his client was remorseful and had no previous convictions in this jurisdiction.
He noted that she was used simply as a “trafficking mule.” Magistrate Forbes said he took all points into consideration, but that the mitigating factor was that the accused indulged in illegal activity. Reynolds was sentenced to 28 months at the Bahamas Department of Corrections and on the second count she was given 18 months, with both sentences to run concurrently. (The Bahamas Journal)