Reports from relatives, community members doom convict's appeal of his sentence

A man with six previous convictions for gun-related offences committed in the 1990s this month had his sentence for two 2012 gun offences upheld, after his relatives and community members labelled him a nuisance in social enquiry reports.

However, the Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Frank Williams, Justice Evan Brown and Justice Lorna Shelly Williams, deducted one year from the sentences for time spent on pre-sentence remand.

The applicant, Artnell Burton, was convicted in April 2014 of illegal possession of firearm and sentenced to 20 years, and 22 years for wounding with intent. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Burton had appealed his convictions but, on February 4, his attorney Atiba Dyer was granted permission on behalf of the applicant to abandon the grounds of appeal in relation to the convictions.

He said the applicant was instead appealing on the grounds that the sentences were manifestly excessive. 

The Court of Appeal comprising Justice Frank Williams, Justice Evan Brown and Justice Lorna Shelly Williams, affirmed the sentences but reduced them by one year for time spent on pre-sentence remand.

The facts of the case were that on December 21, 2012, Burton went to the complainant's one-bedroom apartment in Kingston and said “boy yuh fi dead.”

He then fired the gun over the head of the complainant's young son who was sitting by the doorway cleaning his school shoes and into the room where the complainant and his wife and three-year-old daughter were.

The complainant, who was shot and injured during the incident, said he knew Burton for about 25 years.

In an unsworn statement, Burton had admitted knowing the complainant but he said he was not in the area at the time of the incident.

Burton's previous convictions were illegal possession of firearm for which he was sentenced in December 1991 to four years' imprisonment at hard labour.  He was convicted in October 1996 of the offences of illegal possession of firearm, shooting with intent and sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each count.

The fourth and fifth convictions were in January 1, 1999 for gun offences for which he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. He was convicted on January 19, 1999 for illegal possession of firearm and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment at hard labour.

“These previous convictions aside, there was also the social enquiry report which was negative in general, but particularly so in the community report,” the court said.

Residents in his community of Olympic Gardens, St Andrew, indicated in the social enquiry report that Burton was a nuisance to the community and his entanglement with the law for gun-related offences had become the norm.

Family members stated that they had no interest in the affairs pertaining to Burton as his behaviour throughout the years had been rather distasteful.

“In these circumstances, the applicant may well be regarded as most fortunate not to have received sentences that were more severe. His ground challenging the sentences on the basis that they were manifestly excessive is therefore wholly unmeritorious and was doomed to failure,” the court remarked.

Burton's sentences are to run concurrently from April 25, 2014 when they were imposed, the court ordered.

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Kathy-Ann Pyke and Crown Counsel Alice-Ann Gabbidon represented the Crown and had argued that the sentences were not manifestly excessive.

- Barbara Gayle

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