Driver freed in villa missing guns case

WESTERN BUREAU:

BALFOUR HUTCHINSON, the transport operator who was charged in May in relation to two guns that went missing from a villa at the Tryall Club, Hotel and Villas in Sandy Bay, Hanover, has been freed of all charges.

Hutchinson, who has attended court at least five times since he was arrested and charged, pleaded not guilty to the charges of larceny of firearms and criminal negligence in the Hanover Parish Court in Lucea on Monday.

A shotgun and a handgun have reportedly gone missing since late 2021, both owned by a licensed firearm holder who also owns the villa from which they disappeared.

Hutchinson was charged because he was the overseer at the villa when the guns went missing in 2021.

He was on $300,000 bail, with one to three sureties, on condition that his travel documents were surrendered to the police, and had been ordered to report to the Sandy Bay police at least once per week.

When Hutchinson’s case was called up on Monday, a listed Crown witness who was slated to give evidence was a no-show, while the arresting officer’s statement was said to have too many discrepancies.

Hutchinson was relieved when Judge C. Barnett Plunkett told him that he was free to go, and he should take the experience as a lesson learnt.

“Your Honour, I have learnt the hard way,” Hutchinson told the judge, while she advised him to reassess the ordeal in his own time and not to let such a thing happen to him again.

The Hanover police have not yet charged the villa owner in connection with the two weapons even though the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s legal department has issued a ruling for him to face charges.

In July, Hanover Police Division Chief Superintendent Sharon Beeput had expressed alarm that he had not yet been charged when The Gleaner sought an update.

“As far as I am concerned, he (firearms owner) should be charged, and I have done all the necessary paperwork for that to happen, and it should happen soon,” she stated then.

bryan.miller@gleanerjm.com