– NGO, attorney move to appeal sentences against youths

ENHANCING Potential to Inspire Change (EPIC) Guyana, a non-governmental organisation working to assist children who have had issues with the law, has partnered with Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd to file an appeal to the sentences against two teens they believe were harsh and unwarranted.

The two cases at reference involve two 17-year-olds, namely Akash Pachia and Keysha Gibbs. Both individuals are now serving time at the New Amsterdam Prison in Berbice.
On March 23, 2018, Pachia was sentenced by Berbice Magistrate Charlyn Artiga to four years imprisonment for stealing groceries totalling $8,260. Gibbs, on the other hand, was sentenced to 36 months in jail by Leonora Magistrate Rochelle Liverpool for also stealing items from a shop valued at $45,378.

According to the particulars of Pachia’s charge, between last April 30 and May 1, at Number 50 Village, Corentyne, he broke and entered the shop of Charles Forde and stole the groceries.

Gibbs also pleaded guilty to her charge which read that on June 7 at Leonora, she broke and entered the shop of Yaphet Marks and stole 51 bottles of rum, wines, cakes and other items.

Following the sentencing, EPIC Guyana picked up on the stories and approached Todd for help in securing bail for the teenagers pending the appeal.

Todd decided to offer his services free of charge after agreeing with EPIC’s Director, Brian Backer, that the sentences were too harsh. Backer had known Pachia from the Sophia Juvenile Centre where he spent quite some time before he was sentenced.

The lawyer believes the sentences were harsh if the particulars of the charges are taken into account; and that the magistrates could have acted with some more discretion.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle a few days ago, Todd said his aim is not to appeal the entire conduct of the trial or the law, but the sentence. Nothing in the case jackets indicates to him that there were any extraordinary circumstances involved in these two instances.

Todd pointed out that there is provision in the law for a sentence to be appealed if it is felt that the magistrate failed to exercise discretion.

He said he was by no means trivialising the offences, but feels that the individuals can be helped to reform themselves. “They’re so young; they’re more in need of counselling. They both have the ability to be rehabilitated and there are other measures that would see a reformation of the individuals. This is not an attack on the judiciary.”

The lawyer said nothing on the case jackets indicated that the individuals were ‘repeat offenders’, had legal representation or benefited from a probation report. Furthermore, the state will need to spend way more than what was stolen to care for these individuals while in prison, he said.

COCONUTS AND FRUITS
In an interview at his Kingston office, Backer told this publication that he doubts any detailed assessments were done on the teenagers before the sentences were imposed.
Comparing a few other sentences, Backer pointed out how just recently, the chief magistrate sentenced another 17-year-old to six months imprisonment for larceny in the amount of $410,000. In another case, he noted how a man was sentenced to four years jail for manslaughter. “There are other instances where children get sentenced to three years at NOC for wandering, while you have persons who are charged with narcotics getting three years.”

One of the prosecutors, Backer reported, said Pachia was a menace to society and had been before the courts several times for stealing people’s coconuts, fruits “and them kinda things”. “But I think that a four-year sentence for stealing $8000 is unfair to anyone. I don’t care if you’re 50 years old and if you have been in and out of the system,” Backer said.

“EPIC’s position is, had a detailed assessment been done on this child, maybe the magistrate would have understood that the offence of stealing fruits was basically him trying to survive. So to give him four years is not going to teach him a lesson. He will emerge more criminalised than when he entered the system and his next crime is not going to be for $8000, because he will be extremely angry as anyone would be,” he added.
Backer said the aim is to secure bail for the teenagers pending the appeal. “I would really like to thank Mr. Dexter Todd. This is the kind of give back I would expect to see in these circumstances,” he said.