The teenager accused of stabbing a schoolboy last week on Tudor Street, The City, will spend the next 28 days at HMP Dodds.
Jamal Ramon Anderson Hackett, 17, of Thompson Gap, Black Rock, St Michael, admitted to stealing an $800 cellphone belonging to 16-year-old Stephan Hoyte, but denied unlawfully and maliciously wounding the boy, all on October 9. He further admitted to robbing a 14-year-old boy of $30 on September 17.
Prosecutor Station Sergeant Carrison Henry told the District “A” Magistrates’ Court that Hackett was walking along Tudor Street when there was an altercation involving both him and the complainant. The complainant subsequently dropped a cell phone which the unemployed teenager took up and fled.
When he was brought into police custody, he said he had sold the phone and handed over part of the money. The phone was never recovered.
In the incident involving the 14-year-old, he too was walking along Tudor Street. As he was crossing the street, Hackett and another man placed a hand on his shoulder. He was pushed against the wall, and Hackett cuffed him in his ribs and slapped him in his face, before helping himself to the $30 inside his pocket. Hackett was picked out on an identification parade.
“I just want to know if I can do community service or probation. This is my first offence,” he told Magistrate Douglas Frederick.
“Why are you doing this?” the magistrate queried.
“I was following bad company, Sir,” was the response.
“You are a danger to society. You’re a danger to yourself . . . robbing people like that . . . . People working hard for their money and don’t part with it so easily,” the magistrate said, adding Hackett already had one foot in prison.
His mother, who was also present in court, told Magistrate Frederick her last of four sons didn’t listen even though she talked to him, and lived between her house and his grandmother.
“Sometimes he listen but he following bad company,” she said with tears streaming down her face.
“He is going down a dangerous path . . . . If he goes and does something like this again he can end up dead,” the magistrate warned.
“He can get help, but give him a chance as is his first time,” the mother pleaded.
“No. He’s here now, so we would get him the help. If we don’t then you will end up in the courtyard crying,” the magistrate said, before ordering a pre-sentencing report.
Hackett returns to court on November 14. (RA)
