Appellate court grants appeal of drug charges
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — An error on the certificate of conviction for a man who pleaded guilty to possession of 38 bags of “dangerous drugs” led to him being incorrectly sentenced, the Court of Appeal determined.
Gothileb Patrick was sentenced to three years in prison for each of the four counts levied against him in May 2017.
The sentence was to run concurrently, however, the document sent to the Department of Correctional Services reflected four years prison time for two of the counts.
The appellate court corrected the sentence to reflect the original prison time handed down, and granted Patrick an appeal of the sentence
“Between the utterance of the sentence and the signing of the certificate on conviction an error was made and the document that was sent to Her Majesty’s Prison reflected that the appellant had been sentenced to four years on count number one; three years on count number two; four years on count number three; and three years on count number four,” said Court of Appeal Justice Jon Isaacs in his ruling handed down. “The certificate of conviction is clearly wrong.”
Patrick appeared before the appellant court pro se.
Basil Cumberbatch represented the respondent: the commissioner of police.
In May 2017, Patrick, who was 56 at the time, was caught in a $1.4 million marijuana off of the Ragged Island chain. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import marijuana, conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to supply, marijuana importation, and possession of marijuana with intent to supply.
In court, Patrick, a Jamaican national and father of 10 children, admitted to transporting the drugs from Jamaica in exchange for $2,000.
