REPUTED PORTMORE GANG leader, Donovan Tappin, was on Wednesday found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition in the Kingston Gun Court and is set to be sentenced today.
Tappin was taken into custody by the Portmore CIB on February 23, 2005, and subsequently taken to a house in Waterford, Portmore, St. Catherine, where a handgun was found in a room occupied by him.
Evidence was led by the Crown that Tappin initially acknowledged the room to be his along with a clothes basket in which the gun was found.
However, in his defence, he claimed he did not live at the house nor occupied the room where the firearm, a .380 Lorcin semi-automatic pistol with serial number 429371, was found.
Evidence was given by police personnel Donald Thompson and Jason McKay, who both conducted the search.
The accused man, who was charged along with his brother, Wayne Tappin, insisted the dwelling was that of his sister and mother but provided no evidence to support his claim.
However, High Court judge, Ingrid Mangatal, found him guilty after an overnight deliberation.
His brother was freed after a no-case submission was made by attorney-at-law George Trail.
Superintendent Cornelius Walker, who headed the Portmore division at the time of Tappin's arrest, said the police's quick response to information reaped success. "We had a well-coordinated team and it was one of those instances when we got information and could act promptly," he told THE STAR.
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