A 79-year-old United States businessman has been fined EC$7,500 after he pleaded responsible to gun-related prices on Tuesday.
The court docket heard that on January 24, 2024, William Elton Kennedy of Louisiana arrived right here together with his spouse and two pilots on his non-public jet on the Douglas Charles Airport. He had in his possession a 9 mm pistol and two .9mm magazines one with 11 rounds and the opposite 13 rounds of ammunition.
Kennedy didn’t declare the objects to the Customs and Immigration and when returned to the airport on January 28, the pilot, Phillip Schiatel, throughout his inspection found the firearm and ammunition contained in the plane and knowledgeable the bottom handlers.
The police had been known as and the firearm and ammunition had been handed over to them.
Kennedy admitted that he had did not declare the firearm and ammunition, telling the authorities “I got here down with it however didn’t know that I couldn’t journey with it to Dominica.”
Kennedy was arrested and slapped with a cost of importation of a firearm, importation of ammunition into Dominica with no firearm and ammunition license. However these two prices had been withdrawn by the prosecution after he pleaded responsible to his failure to declare the firearm and ammunition to customs.
In his mitigating plea, lawyer Wayne Norde informed the court docket that his shopper was 79 years outdated and travelled to Dominica for enterprise functions, was on the court docket’s mercy with no earlier convictions, and had not wasted the court docket’s time pleading responsible on the “first alternative.
“He was very cooperative with the police, customs, and immigration, he was the one who informed them concerning the firearm within the plane so he was sincere from the phrase go and sure his honesty introduced him to court docket,” Norde stated.
He requested the court docket to make use of its “discretion based mostly on the details, give his shopper a robust warning and reprimand and discharge him,” including “this isn’t a case of a custodial sentence, the details of this case are particular.”
However Justice of the Peace Michael Laudat informed him that ignorance of the regulation is not any excuse and whereas he won’t impose a “custodial sentence he should have a look at the general public’s curiosity within the matter.
“I’m not going to impose a custodial sentence on you, you may have absolutely cooperated, you pleaded responsible and didn’t topic the court docket to a protracted trial,” the Justice of the Peace stated.
Kennedy was given a nice of EC$7,500.00 for the failure to declare a firearm to customs and for the ammunition cost with no separate penalty. The nice was paid instantly.
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