A 37-year-old Barbadian man has been sentenced to one year of incarceration at Dodds Prison, after pleading guilty to theft and violating a court-ordered peace bond he received just two months prior. Mario Michael Rommell Lamar Murrell, a resident of Beckles Road St Michael, entered guilty pleas before District ‘A’ No. 2 Magistrates Court Magistrate Manila Renee on two separate charges: stealing a $119 radio from the local retail outlet Prosales on August 24, and possession of drug paraphernalia linked to cocaine misuse, found in his possession on August 25.
The conviction pushes Murrell’s total criminal convictions to 27, marking a decades-long pattern of run-ins with the legal system. Prosecuting Sergeant Kenmore Phillips laid out the sequence of events that led to the latest charges for the court. On August 23, Murrell visited the Prosales store to drop off a mobile phone for repair services. He returned the following day to check on the progress of his device; when the store employee stepped away to locate the phone, Murrell slipped an unsecured radio into his possession and exited the store without completing payment. Once the cashier alerted the employee that the radio had not been purchased, the theft was reported to local law enforcement. Officers took Murrell into custody the next day, and a routine search during processing turned up the cocaine-use paraphernalia.
Court records show Murrell’s most recent court appearance came just two months earlier, in June 2024, when a magistrate granted him a six-month peace bond. The terms of the agreement were clear: if Murrell kept the peace, he would avoid jail time, but any violation would trigger an automatic three-month prison sentence. When asked about the breach of the bond, Murrell took responsibility, telling Magistrate Renee, “Yes ma’am, I know I broke the bond. I have a drug problem.”
In handing down the sentence, Magistrate Renee called attention to Murrell’s extensive criminal record, noting that he had been in and out of prison almost every year for most of his adult life. “You are 37 years and have a long list of convictions. You must try and do better. Get help when you go up there,” the magistrate said. The 12-month sentence for the theft charge will run at the same time as the three-month sentence triggered by the bond violation. For the possession of drug apparatus charge, Murrell received a conviction, formal reprimand, and immediate discharge, with no additional prison time added to his sentence.