A young manual laborer from Richland Park, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has received a suspended prison sentence after police found a single 9mm bullet during a court-authorized search of his residence linked to a separate criminal allegation.
Nineteen-year-old Dwayne Jackson appeared before Chief Magistrate Colin John at the Kingstown Serious Offences Court on Monday. During the arraignment, he entered a not guilty plea to a separate charge of using threatening language, which was alleged to have occurred on June 11 — just two days before the ammunition was uncovered in his home.
Prosecutor Renrick Cato, an Inspector of Police, laid out the official facts of the case to the court. The investigation into the alleged threatening language prompted authorities to obtain and execute a search warrant for Jackson’s Richland Park property on June 13. When officers arrived, Jackson was home, agreed to the search without pushback, and stayed on site throughout the entire process.
The single round of ammunition was located by PC 88 Richardson inside a blue floral-patterned vase that was placed on a wooden storage unit in Jackson’s living room. When shown the bullet, Jackson told officers he had picked it up off a public roadway quite some time earlier. Appearing in court without legal representation, Jackson elaborated that he found the ammunition the day after an outdoor street party (locally referred to as a “jiggy party”) where multiple gunshots had been fired.
Jackson addressed the court directly to share details of his difficult personal circumstances. He explained that he dropped out of Emmanuel High School Mesopotamia when he was in Form 3, after a fight over a romantic relationship that left another person injured. He told the court he has no family or social support to help him improve his situation, adding that members of his community frequently mock him for living in poor, unsanitary conditions.
Prosecutor Cato asked the magistrate to consider allowing Jackson a chance at community-based supervision rather than immediate custody. In his response to the defendant, Chief Magistrate John rejected the idea that Jackson’s difficult background excuses the illegal possession of ammunition. “You can’t blame your situation and say you grew up a certain way. Apply yourself,” the chief magistrate told the defendant. He emphasized that the opportunity for a second chance rests entirely in Jackson’s hands, urging him to seek stable employment to turn his life around.
In handing down the sentence, the magistrate deactivated a previous pretrial bond that was in place for Jackson, sentencing him to six months of imprisonment that is suspended for a 12-month period. He also ordered that the seized 9mm ammunition be permanently confiscated by authorities. For the threatening language charge, the magistrate granted bail in the amount of EC$1,000, which Jackson was able to post via his own recognisance. The case for that charge was transferred to the Mesopotamia Magistrate’s Court, with the next hearing scheduled for June 26. In closing, the magistrate repeated his advice to Jackson: “Go and look for work. Don’t come back before me.”