Recaptured prison escapee jailed for trafficking narcotics

By Paula Gomes

Cornelius Thomas stood silently in the prisoner’s dock while Magistrate Dylan Bess summed up the evidence before handing down sentence.
He held that narcotics were found in a room which the accused occupied and had care and control of; and further, the defendant’s knowledge of the illicit substance was to be inferred from both oral and written caution statements in which he admitted to same.
He ruled that the court was satisfied that the alleged substance was indeed

cannabis, and this was proven by the analyst’s report.
He said the prosecution had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had full care and control of the narcotics which were found inside his apartment, and this was evidenced by caution statements given during the investigation process — an inference to which the accused did not object when it was read in court during trial.
Magistrate Bess then concluded that the prosecution had successfully proven all elements of the offence, and he said the witnesses were not discredited under cross examination.
Considering that the accused is a first time offender with no prior convictions, the magistrate passed a sentence of three years and six months’ incarceration, along with a fine of $566,000. Non-payment of the fine will see Thomas spending an additional six months in prison.
Thomas accepted his fate, but petitioned the magistrate to allow him to serve time in his home country, Trinidad, for safety purposes, citing the situation in Guyana as “unpredictable” following the recent prison unrest and fire.
And while acknowledging that prisons are not meant to be “comfortable” places, Magistrate Bess responded to the effect that he had no power to grant the defendant’s request.
The accused was insistent in wanting at all costs to avoid incarceration in the Camp Street Prison, and Magistrate Bess assured that he would include in the order a request for the defendant to serve the time at either Lusignan (East Coast Demerara) or Mazaruni (Region Seven).
RECAP
The 32-year-old Trinidadian gospel promoter was first arraigned in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts in May 2017, when he was charged and remanded to prison for trafficking in 834 grams of cannabis.
Then residing in Guyhoc Gardens, Georgetown, Thomas had denied possession of the illicit drug, alleging in court that on the day in question (May 28), before calling the police, his landlord had called him and held him at gunpoint, informing him that a black bag was found in his apartment.
Thomas was one of the six inmates who escaped from the Camp Street Prison on July 9, following the fire and subsequent unrest. He was recaptured weeks later in ‘C’ Field, South Sophia.
It remains unclear at this point whether he was charged with escaping from lawful custody.