THE BURGLAR who was stoned, then knocked down and run over by the people whose establishment he had just robbed at gunpoint, begged for leniency from the High Court yesterday.
Troy Anderson Greene said his guilty plea, the two years he had spent on remand, along with the fact that no one was hurt “in the actual robbery” should count in his favour.
However, the prosecutor has suggested that Greene should be jailed for a minimum of 12 years. Greene, 26, of Harewood Road, Hillaby, St. Andrew, was back in the No. 5 Supreme Court, before Justice Randall Worrell, after pleading guilty earlier in these Sessions of Continuous Sittings, to entering B’s Wholesale Inc. and stealing $19 547 and US$424 while armed with a firearm.
He also admitted unlawfully and maliciously engaging in conduct which placed employee Jermaine Ellis, owner Ramesh Ramnarine and employee Kenny Campbell in danger of death or serious bodily harm and having a firearm and one bullet, all on August 29, 2008.
He was also charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding employee Rodney Bovell with intent. He denied that charge and pleaded guilty to the lesser, alternate count of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Bovell.
Greene, who again apologised to the court and to the complainants, asked for their forgiveness “if not now, in the future”.
He blamed the offences and mistakes in his past on bad company, smoking cocaine and drinking alcohol.
“I’m not trying to blame what I did on smoking or drinking alone, but they clouded my judgement,” he said, adding he did not want to be “in and out of court or in and out of prison”.
“But you left home with a gun,” Justice Worrell told him. “What did you expect? You didn’t expect you would have to use the gun?” the judge asked him. “No one was hurt in the actual robbery,” said Greene. “It was only when the complainant and his employees turn round and ran me down with their car . . .”The burglar said he believed the owner and his staff were actually going to kill him, even though he begged them to call the police.
“I had to undergo three surgeries,” he told the court. “I have the scars to remind me. Not a day goes by that I don’t have pain in my leg or in my back. Every night I go to sleep I see a red car coming at me,” he said. Crown Counsel Lancelot Applewhaite said four of Greene’s offences carried a maximum of life in prison; two carried seven-year terms and one had ten years as its upper limit.
The prosecutor, however, told the court he had considered that a minimum sentence of 12 years should be appropriate.
Justice Worrell adjourned sentencing until Tuesday and remanded Greene back to HMP Dodds.
The court had heard that Ramnarine was walking across the yard of his business, when a masked and armed Greene grabbed him and pushed him into the bond. Greene then demanded money.
Other workers hid as Ramnarine complied with Greene’s orders, who fired off a shot.
Greene dragged Ramnarine outside, told him to run, and shot at him. The bullet missed and Greene ran off.
The hidden workers came out armed with rocks and bottles, and pursued Greene in a car. They tracked him to where he was hiding and further pursued him when he ran off. Greene turned, pointed the gun at them and fired a shot. But Ramnarine, who was driving, crouched behind the steering wheel and ran him down.A now injured Greene limped onto the premises of a nursing home, as the complainants continued to rain rocks on him. It was then that Greene shot Bovell in the face.The men continued to bombard Greene, who was forced to seek refuge in a car.
Constable Eustace Haynes, the orderly of Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, was stopped by the workers as he was driving by and eventually disarmed Greene. (HLE)
