Man going back to jail after being caught with weed outside prison

A 51-year-old has been sent to jail after being caught around the compound of the Belle Correctional Facility carrying marijuana and tobacco in a bag with a prisoner’s name inside.

Barry Antoine of Layou lamented his fate when it was delivered to him, crying out, and hitting the side of the courtroom as he exited, mourning “Oh God jail boy…oh God.”

Antoine knew exactly what this sentence, handed down by Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne at the Serious Offences Court meant, as it was not his first time being incarcerated.

He himself admitted: “Me now come out ah jail,” to the court and stated that it had been about two weeks since he came out.

Antoine was captured on the evening of April 3 by two officers on foot patrol duty of the outer perimeter of the Belle Isle Correctional Facility. He was discovered when the officers went into the direction of a noise that they heard, and found Antoine emerging from a field.

He was carrying two plastic bags in his hand, which were searched. One bag contained four transparent bags containing high leaf, five packs of bamboo wrapping, one yellow lighter, and a piece of paper with the name Devon Baptiste, who is an inmate at the institution. The second bag contained 459g of weed.

Antoine claimed “Me nah carry no weed give no prisoner.”

At the Serious Offences Court on Monday, April 6, the defendant again insisted that he wasn’t.

The chief magistrate asked him “Don’t you think it’s kind of peculiar” that the name of a prisoner was in the bag along with the substances.

Antoine explained that the inmate’s mother gave him something to drop off at the prison, and the name must have been left behind. He went to the prison to drop off cornflakes and other items, he said, and then went “Leeward”.

 At the time he was caught, he ran in the banana field to evade the police, he stated.

The magistrate tested him, asking if she were to check with Belle Isle Correctional Facility, whether the record would reflect that he visited there that day.

The defendant said yes, and so the matter was stood down to check whether this was true.

Later, Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delplesche informed “The information is that he did visit the facility earlier that morning, but the bag he brought the stuff in, that bag was left with the stuff. The stuff was not taken out of a bag, a bag was handed over with the stuff.”

 “He went there, go Leeward, and come back on the compound. He come back on the compound of the prisons…with weed and tobacco,” the prosecutor summarized.

“…You think is foolish people you talking to,” Delplesche commented, referring to his claim that he ran into a banana field to hide from the police.

He recommended, “He likes there, he wants to be there, let him be there.”

Antoine countered “me nah want to be there.”

In sentencing him, the chief magistrate noted that what the defendant did was carefully planned, and that he had had knowledge of the correctional facility. She found it was extremely aggravating that he was carrying the name of an inmate in the bag, and noted that this was a security issue. Another aggravating feature was that he was on the compound of the prison.

Antoine also had 10 previous convictions to his name, the last one being for firearm possession, for which he came out of prison two weeks ago.

Antoine was sentenced to four months in prison.

After receiving this news, the defendant asked if he could be given a fine instead. When he returned to the seating area for prisoners he started making weeping noises, which were loud enough for him to be escorted out of the courtroom. However, on his way out he continued to lament loudly, and in the corridor outside of the courtroom.