A 46-year-old man, who has already been to prison several times, is to spend the next nine years of his life in an adult correctional facility again where it is hoped that he will be rehabilitated and live a life free of crime when he is releasedAlton Rose of Claremont in St Ann, was last Thursday, February 6, sentenced to a total of 36 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to robbery and gun related charges the St Ann Circuit Court before Justice Marjorie Cole-Smith.Rose, who was a vendor up to the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty on January 31, to three counts of robbery with aggravation and three counts of illegal possession of firearm. The court was told, ahead of his sentencing, that he had eight previous convictions.Rose was arrested and charged last June, after he and another man reportedly went on a robbery spree in Brown’s Town and Runaway Bay in the parish.He was sentenced to seven, five and four years respectively at hard labour on each count of illegal possession of firearm and nine, six and five years respectively on each count of robbery with aggravation.However, he will serve only nine years as the sentences are to run concurrently, or at the same time.
BROWN’S TOWN
Before sentencing was handed down last Thursday, Rose’s lawyer Robert Brown asked Mrs Justice Cole-Smith to be lenient to his client. According to Mr. Brown, Rose was coerced into committing the crimes. He pleaded with the High Court judge to temper justice with mercy. Mr. Brown told the court that his client has vowed to abstain from crime upon his return from prison.Mrs Justice. Cole-Smith, in handing down the sentences, said she had to take into consideration Rose’s previous convictions. She told Rose that he should use the time behind bars to reflect seriously on his life and live up to his promise of charting a new path free of crime, upon his release from prison.According to the allegations, between June 1 and 2, last year, Rose and another man carried out three robberies, one in the Runaway Bay area and two in Brown’s Town. In the first incident, it is reported that on June 1, the two complainants were at the popular Flavours Beach in Runaway Bay when they saw a man armed with a gun running towards them.The complainants alleged further that shortly after a man with a knife approached and asked them to hand over their valuables. The robbers reportedly made off with a ring and a BlackBerry smart-phone from one of the complainants.In the second incident, it is alleged that about 3:20 a.m. on June 2 Rose and another man held up and robbed a male complainant of a phone and $900. The complainant was on his way home from a wake and was walking along the Minard main road in the vicinity of the Cool Oasis gas station in Brown’s Town when he observed two men standing across the street at a bus stop.The complainant alleged that upon reaching the vicinity of the Brown’s Town Community College he saw two men running behind him and realized that it was the men who had been standing at the bus stop. One of the men pointed a gun at the complainant. According to the allegations, the man with the gun told his accomplice to search the complainant. The complainant later identified Rose as the robber who took his cell phone and $900.It is alleged that about 25 minutes of that robbery, another complainant was walking along the Liberty Valley main road also in Brown’s Town when he encountered two men. One of the men reportedly pointed a gun at him. Further allegations are that they led him to an abandoned building where they robbed him of a cellular phone and $2,000.About 4:45 that same morning, the police reportedly saw Rose along the Brown’s Town main road acting in what they said was a suspicious manner. He was accosted and searched and a knife and a Blackberry smart-phone found in his possession.He was taken into custody and later identified by the complainants as one of the men who robbed them.
