BY TASHIEKA MAIR
STAR Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A TEENAGER WHO had held up and robbed a Maldon Comprehensive and Junior High School student was spared a prison sentence after the Resident Magistrate decided to give him a chance to 'clean up his act.'
Garthley Palmer, 19, of a St. James address, had pleaded guilty to robbery with aggravation, and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years. He will also be supervised by a probation officer.
However, despite pleading guilty to the charge, he still insists that he asked the student for money and it was given to him.
"A nuff time him nuh have no fare and a mi haffi give him money," he said.
The allegations are that on January 30, the complainant was approaching the school's premises, where he is a student, when the accused, whom he knew, called him and asked him for money.
When he told Palmer that he had no money to give him, the accused drew a knife and placed the blade at the student's side and told him to hand over the money and not to let him have to get it himself.
The boy, out of fear, handed over $200. When the child got home that afternoon he told his mother what took place and his mother subsequently reported the matter to the Spring Mount police. Palmer was picked up the following day after the complainant pointed him out as he stood in the vicinity of the school.
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