There is one less vagrant on the streets today after Arleigh Leron Dalrymple was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
He was caught with the same type of implements used to breech a number of cars parked at Kensington Oval. They belonged to patrons who were attending last December’s Hennessy Artistry show.
However, the 52-year-old, of no fixed place of abode, had been charged with and had pleaded guilty to loitering on the old CIBC Bank premises (in Fontabelle) on December 3. There was cause to suspect he was about to commit theft. He also admitted having a cocaine apparatus.
Yesterday, he asked the court to be lenient, saying he had been on remand for three months.
He said since he had been in prison, he had not been getting medical attention for a hernia.
Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant sentenced him to 18 months in jail for loitering and ordered that the time spent on remand be taken into consideration.
She also jailed him for 12 months for having the cocaine apparatus. The sentences will run concurrently.
It was on December 5, last year, that as hundreds were partying at Hennessy Artistry in the early hours of the morning, someone was breaking into cars which were parked at Kensington Oval.
Police did some investigating and found the thief used a spark plug to gain entry into the vehicles.
They mounted an operation to snare the culprit. They caught Dalrymple who, coincidentally, was carrying some broken spark plugs, a flashlight and a screwdriver, and was in an area where a number of cars were parked. When he was searched, a glass bottle containing a white residue was found on him.
When they asked him to account for it, he told them: “That is just my cocaine pipe. Give me a break; I don’t do crime no more.”
Dalrymple accounted for the other items by saying: “Those for my bicycle.”
But when asked where this bicycle was, he replied: “I don’t have it anymore.”
Dalrymple had said he was “gainfully employed with a weed whacker”.
He had also sought to explain his lack of address by telling the court he used to live at 8th Avenue, New Orleans, St Michael, but “because of the landlord, the house was bulldozed”. (HLE)