Diego Martin man escapes jail

A DIEGO MARTIN man, who pleaded guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice, yesterday escaped a custodial sentence when he appeared before Justice Mark Mohammed in the Port-of-Spain Second Criminal Court. He was instead put on a bond of good behaviour for five years after Justice Mohammed took into consideration the man’s age, his unblemished record and the fact he had already been incarcerated for almost two years. Lennie Francis Brewster, 59, of Salandy Street in Diego Martin, had used a Protocol Deed of 1993 to secure bail for another man, Cliff Sean Francois, on May 19, 2001. It was later discovered the deed had been transferred to the sole ownership of Kathleen Cox in May of 1995, and Brewster did not have permission to use the property to secure bail.

On his arrest, Brewster admitted the property had been transferred to Cox, but he said, “I only put the deed on Kathleen’s name for she to do a work. The lawyer was to make a papers for it to reverse after that.” Brewster was charged for the offence on January 10, 2001. In his mitigation plea, Brewster’s attorney, Rudolph Martin, requested his client not be given a custodial sentence. In addition to his client’s age, clean record and time spent in prison, Martin said Brewster was the witness in a capital matter involving persons who are currently incarcerated and sending him (Brewster) to prison would endanger his life.

In handing down sentence, Justice Mohammed told Brewster if the matter had gone to trial and he had been found guilty, he could have been sentenced to four to five years in prison. However, the judge said, the fact that Brewster did not waste the court’s time, had a clean record and had spent almost two years in prison because he was unable to secure bail had worked in his favour. “No useful purpose would be served with a custodial sentence,” Justice Mohammed said, and placed Brewster on the bond. The State was represented by attorneys Nadia James and Sheron Raphael.