A Jackson, St Michael man has been sentenced to prison for nearly two years for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, with the court warning about the growing threat of gun violence to the community.
Jasan Anderson Phillips reappeared before Justice Anthony Blackman in the No. 3A Supreme Court after previously admitting to having a .380 automatic pistol, and six rounds of ammunition on February 28, 2023.
“Guns kill, maim, terrorise and intimidate,” Justice Blackman said before giving a nine-year starting sentence. “As a sentencing court, I must address the fact that too many lethal weapons are too readily available. Too many are carried and too many are used always to devastating effect on individual victims and with insidious corrosive impact on the well being of the community.”
Phillips was credited for his plea, mitigating factors and the 514 days already spent on remand and was left with 514 more days behind bars.
State Counsel Treann Knight, who prosecuted the case, had told the court that the police went to Browne’s Gap, Jackson, where they saw several people at the community centre before they spotted Phillips with a black bag.
They stopped him and said he matched the description of a man said to have a firearm. The bag was searched and nothing was found, but the firearm was found in his strap bag. He told police he found it in a black sock by a tree through a track near to his house.
(JB)
