Double charges for accused robber

Tashieka Mair, STAR Writer
WESTERN BUREAU

Desmond Stewart, the accused robber who made a daring jump from the first floor of the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday in a bid to escape custody, was sentenced to six months in custody when he appeared before the court on Thursday.

Mr. Stewart, who lives on Love Lane, St James, was sentenced for the new charge of escaping custody one day after he was sentenced to six months in prison for the charge of robbery with aggravation.

Mr Stewart told the court that he has been using hard drugs since 2001 when he was in Spanish Town, and said this was partly responsible for his actions.

"From 2001 I get caught up in drugs and is like a different function in the brain," he told RM Winsome Henry

He began to cry as he told RM Henry that he had been to prison before and said he tried to escape, as he did not want to go back to prison. He also pleaded with the judge to get in contact with the powers that be to help him to get medical attention as he had damaged his back and groin during the fall and was having a hard time walking.

RM Henry told Stewart, "You are lucky to be alive; the last man who tried that (jump from the building) died."

Stewart, who had bruises on his left arm held on to the chairs and walls, will serve six months in prison, as both sentences are concurrent.