His lawyer begged for a drug rehab remand at the Psychiatric Hospital, but what Dario Devon Drayton got was a 28-day remand at HMP Dodds.
The 25-year-old, of no fixed place of abode, who was the subject of a recent wanted bulletin put out by police, appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court on 15 charges yesterday.
Drayton pleaded not guilty to 11 of the charges, which included robbery, theft and burglary.
He was not required to plead to the remaining four indictable offences of indecent assault; robbing a woman of her car and possessions; wounding a lawman with intent to prevent lawful apprehension, and assaulting a lawman with intent to prevent lawful apprehension.
Prosecutor Sergeant Cameron Gibbons was about to start his objections to bail when attorney Kamisha Benjamin, who was holding for Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, interrupted him, saying she would not be applying for bail.
“Based on my conversations with him [accused Drayton], from the time he was 13, he was heavily involved in drugs,” Benjamin told the court.
“And from the time he was 19, he was before the court for offences against the person – robbery and theft,” the attorney submitted.
Benjamin said such charges were the accused’s way of “fuelling his drug habit”.
“Upon his apprehension, he was detained at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This was as a result of the injuries allegedly sustained by members of the Royal Barbados Police Force.
“That time he spent there caused him to realise that this is not how he wants to live his life,” counsel said, as she noted that the accused had five children. She then asked that Drayton be remanded to the Psychiatric Hospital.
But Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant turned down the application, saying the accused had a “long history of these types of offences”.
“He has pleaded not guilty to all of the summary matters. He has not indicated he wants to move on.
“I don’t have any early guilty pleas that would indicate that he wants to move on with his life. He does not qualify and moreover, he seems to think that this is a joke. He is standing in the dock and skinning his teeth,” the magistrate noted, adding she had not detected any signs of remorse.
She remanded Drayton to HMP Dodds and adjourned the matters until December 5. (HLE)