Judge rejects man’s guilty plea

A parish judge could not accept a guilty plea from a man who was charged following a robbery at a Chinese restaurant earlier this year.

Judge Venise Blackstock-Murray was mystified by the explanation given by Onazon Bennett, who is of a central Kingston address, for stealing items from a different restaurant.

Prosecutors at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court outlined that on March 8, Bennett entered the restaurant and stole an undetermined sum of cash and a power wash valued at $50,000. On a previous court appearance, he pleaded not guilty to shop breaking and larceny. But on Monday, he indicated that he wished to shorten the criminal proceedings by pleading guilty.

"Police hold on to me for a crime and say dem want another man weh rob up the Chiney shop. Me know di man, because is a man weh me reason wid all di time. Cause me say me know di man, di police say dem ago charge me fi it [the robbery]," Bennett explained.

Baffled by the man's explanation, the puzzled judge asked, "What are you trying to say Sir?"

"Did you do it or not? Because it sounds to me that you are saying the police charged you because you know the man," Blackstock-Murray argued.

The judge said that she could not accept Bennett's admission of guilt and described his utterances as being 'guilty by association'.

"I cannot accept his plea. The plea must be unequivocal," the judge noted.

Bennett was remanded in custody until September 4 to allow time for the file to be completed. He is also to settle his legal representation by that time.