Tobago man to spend three times his sentence in jail

A TOBAGO man who has already spent over twice his sentence time in jail awaiting his appeal, lost it yesterday and was told the  two-year sentence imposed on him by a magistrate will start from date of appeal March 25, 2003.  This means that Sheldon Martin Roberts will end up spending more than three times his sentence in jail.

In this magisterial judgement,  Justice Lionel Jones and Justice Rolston Nelson said they could not give Roberts credit for time already spent in jail. Their lordships have also stipulated  that three years represent the ordinary delay between filing and the hearing of an appeal. But Roberts’ attorney Dana Seetahal said the case cries out for some relief of  the injustice. She acknowledged that because of the law, the court could not back date the sentence from date of conviction, but  recalled a case of related circumstances  within the last few  months in which Chief Justice Sat Sharma varied the sentence and placed the appellant, a woman,  on a bond. Seetahal suggested that was an alternative that could  have been elected to meet the justice of the case.

The court said in its nine-page judgement: “There was no appeal against sentence in the case, but attorney for the appellant has asked us to take into account the facts that the appellant has spent some 39 months in prison although his sentence was 24 months. This was because he had not been granted bail on conviction as is expected, and had not sought bail by applying to a judge in chambers as directed by the magistrate. Attorney has told us the reason for that is that he had no attorney at the time he filed notice of appeal.” “Although in ‘Michael Singh’ ( a similar case), in  view of the lengthy delay of some five years before the appeal was heard, this Court reduced the sentence by two years, it was clearly recognised that three years represented the ordinary delay between the filing and the hearing of an appeal, and for which period the appellant could not be given credit.” Seetahal recalled making an application for leave to also appeal against sentence before their lordships in court, but was refused.

Roberts, who eventually got bail in September last year following Seetahal’s representation, is in Tobago and will have to surrender himself to police or be arrested by them and taken back to prison to serve his sentence. Roberts was not in court for his matter because he was not served with the summons to attend. He was convicted on June 17, 1999 of breaking and entering and indecently assaulting a girl and sentenced two years hard labour by Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar. The incident took place in Roxborough, Tobago,  on February 27, 1999. Senior State Counsel Trevor Ward represented the State.