Inmate who escaped custody gets one year in prison for car theft
Published:Monday | February 3, 2025 | 5:09 PMChristopher Thomas/ - Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Fidel Ferguson, one of five inmates who escaped from the lock-up at the Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay, St James, on December 14 last year, has been sentenced to a one-year imprisonment at hard labour for larceny of a motor vehicle, for which he was in custody at the time of his escape.
Ferguson, 36, of a Mountain View address in Greenwood, St James, received the sentence from Judge Sasha-Marie Ashley during his latest appearance in the St James Parish Court on Friday.
Attorney-at-law Suwayne Phillips, who represented Ferguson during the sentencing hearing, said his social enquiry report played a part in the sentence he received.
“The judge took into account what was said in the social enquiry report, that Mr Ferguson had no previous convictions and he had family support growing up. But he was always with unscrupulous company, as per what the community said,” Phillips told The Gleaner, while outlining the judge’s decision about Ferguson’s sentence.
Ferguson’s escape from custody did not play a role in Ashley’s sentencing decision, though she was fully aware of the incident.
Ferguson was previously tried and found guilty in relation to the theft of a 2015 Toyota Axio motor car from the home of a Montego Bay businessman on July 18, 2023. The motor vehicle was later found in the Greenwood community and positively identified by the complainant. Ferguson was subsequently arrested following police investigations.
Following the guilty verdict on those charges, Ferguson’s case was scheduled for sentencing on Friday’s date, January 31. However, he and four other inmates escaped from the Barnett Street lock-up in Montego Bay between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on December 14, 2024.
On December 15, the day after the breakout, residents of Paisley district in St James saw Ferguson in their community, suffering from a gunshot wound to his leg, which he reportedly got after being attacked by gunmen. The residents summoned the police, and Ferguson was taken to hospital under police guard.
Two of the other four escapees, Edgar Spence of Flower Hill, St James, and Tyrese Brown of Albert Town, Trelawny, were killed in separate encounters with the police following their breakout. The remaining two, Daniel McIntosh of Peddlers Lane, Mt Salem, St James, and Maurice Belnavis, of Norwood, St James, are still on the run.
Prior to Friday’s sentencing hearing for the motor vehicle theft, Ferguson appeared in court on Wednesday, January 29 in relation to the charge of escaping from custody, to which he pleaded guilty.
On that date, presiding judge Diahann Bernard set the matter for sentencing on February 18 and ordered the creation of a social enquiry report, to assist in determining Ferguson’s sentence at that time. He is not being represented by attorney Phillips in relation to the escaping custody charge.