Judge: Having a gun will do you no good

So declared Justice Carlisle Greaves as he imposed two forthwith fines, totalling $11 500, on the only person he said he believed when people claimed they found an illegal weapon.

“I have said this to you young men all the time. When you are poor, or growing up poor, you should not possess a firearm. Nothing good will come of it. Nothing good for you or nothing good for anybody.

“It seems to me the last thing in the world you should want anything to do with is a firearm. So hear me, young men. You shouldn’t have a gun. It will do you no good,” he said.

The judge was speaking as he dealt with Tyrese Kadar Odle in the No. 3 Supreme Court on Friday.

The 22-year-old, of Rogers Road, Grazettes, St Michael, had pleaded guilty to having a .32-auto calibre semiautomatic pistol and three bullets in his possession on August 17, 2024.

Justice Greaves fined him $10 000 forthwith or two-and-a-half years in prison for the gun, and $1 500 forthwith or 15 months in jail for the ammunition.

Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce prosecuted the matter.

Odle, who was not represented by counsel, told the court he had made a mistake and wanted “a chance”.

“I ain’t got nobody to pay a fine,” he said, adding he worked “two jobs”.

Justice Greaves then asked him how would he be able to pay a fine if one was imposed.

“I is work and I would got to work harder,” Odle replied.

He revealed his mother, who suffered from diabetes, had died in 2020; his father was an alcoholic; his brother Kemo Grant died in police custody and another brother was currently on remand at Dodds Prison on a murder charge. Odle went on to say he found the gun in the yard of his home and believed it belonged to his deceased brother. The judge told him that “firearms attract firearms”. “Somebody know you got one and they coming for you. If you are not going to die, you are going to get caught. You’re not good enough to keep yourself out of the hands of police.” He continued that once gunmen were caught, they either had stiff fines imposed on them or they go to prison.

“But you can’t pay a fine ’cause you’re too poor to pay it,” said the judge as he explained his fines started at $15 000.

“I have never seem a firearm cook, wash, build a house or fix a car. All they do is keep noise and hurt people.

“It seems to me it is better to get yourself a hammer, saw, shovel, trowel, a microphone to sing something, a paint brush or a paint gun, if it is a gun you want,” Justice Greaves said.

“There is no need in life to show off with a gun ’cause the people you want to show off to, you don’t impress them.”

He further advised Odle that his life would be determined by the choices he made, stating that the first choice he should have made was to not have a gun.

The judge went on to say, however, that of the many men who claimed they had found their illegal weapons, Odle was the only one he believed.

He added the gun was so rusty “it looked like it would more kill you. The only thing on this gun that is not rusty is the tape round the handle”.

McMeo-Boyce, in outlining the facts, said police were in the area of Seale’s Avenue, St Michael, when they saw Odle among a group of men.

He looked in their direction and ran. Police pursued and noticed he was running with his hand in the pocket of his hoodie.

He refused to stop when they ordered him to do so and they saw when he took a gun from the hoodie and tossed it under a vehicle.

They eventually caught him and took him back to the area from where the gun was retrieved. Odle denied it was his.

When he was interviewed, he later admitted he had found it while he was cleaning the yard of his home. He told police he believed it belonged to his deceased brother Kemo Grant. (HLE)