Vendor gets 21-year sentence for robbery
Published:Saturday | August 5, 2023 | 12:06 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
A Kingston vendor who lured a woman and her partner to a church and, along with an accomplice, robbed them at gunpoint of valuables, including $2,000 and a handkerchief, has been sentenced to 21 years, three months and 16 days in prison.
Keddane Buchanan, 23, was slapped with a 21-year sentence for using a firearm to commit a felony, an offence carrying a mandatory minimum of 20 years under the Firearms Act.
He was also sentenced to 13 years, three months and 16 days for robbery with aggravation.
The sentences, which were handed down last week by Justice Yvonne Brown, are to run concurrently.
Buchanan pleaded guilty to both offences at the start of his trial in June.
The convict had contacted the female complainant via social media under the pretence that he was interested in purchasing a cellular phone, and when she and her partner showed up, robbed them of four cell phones, US$50, J$2,000 and the handkerchief.
The evidence led at the trial was that in November 2022, the female complainant, after being contacted by Buchanan, made arrangements for them to meet at the Central Police Station in Kingston to deliver the phone.
On November 11, the female, accompanied by her spouse, went to the location. Buchanan, however, requested that they meet at a church that was in the same area, and the complainant complied.
The couple, after arriving at the church, was seated in their vehicle when Buchanan entered the back and sat without invitation.
The couple then told him that they did not conduct business in the car, and he replied, “Everything cool, man,” and attempted to hand the female an envelope, which was not taken.
Shortly after, another man entered the car. The complainant, at that point, insisted that they did not conduct business in the car while Buchanan continued saying, “Everything cool.”
He then asked the complainant if they did not want to do business in the car because the second man had a gun and proceeded to tell the man to draw the gun.
The man complied, but after he did so, both he and Buchanan started screaming at the complainants to give them everything they had. Buchanan then grabbed items and left the car.
Arrested shortly after
Following the robbery, the couple reported the matter, and while on their way to show the police the scene, spotted Buchanan standing on the roadway and pointed him out.
The police accosted him and took him to the Central Police Station, where valuables belonging to the complainants were found in his possession.
During the sentencing, Buchanan’s lawyer, while acknowledging that the judge’s hands were tied, asked Brown to consider his client’s guilty plea, the time spent in custody and that he was a young man with no prior conviction.
The judge, in arriving at his sentence, started at 23 years, but, after considering the mitigating and aggravating factors, his social enquiry report and the time spent in custody, the sentence was reduced to 21 years, three months and 16 days.