The Court of Appeal yesterday overturned the seven-month sentence on a Claxton Bay mother who in 2013 stole a purse from a female passenger in a taxi in order to buy food for her children, then aged six, four and one.
Michelle Cudjoe, a mother of three, who was 24 years old at the time, was charged for aggravated robbery under Section 24:1 (a ) of the Larceny Act.
Appeal Court judges Paula Mae Weeks and Alice Yorke Soo Hon, sitting in the San Fernando Supreme Court, quashed the decision of Deputy Chief Magistrate Indra Ramoo-Haynes to impose a custodial sentence against Cudjoe.
In upholding the appeal against conviction, the judges found the magistrate did not take into consideration a number of factors, that she had pleaded guilty, acknowledged what she did was wrong and that she had no previous convictions.
The judges said while it was not necessary for the magistrate to take those factors into consideration, she did not explain the reasons for arriving at her conclusion in the appeal.
The judges also found that a fine was not appropriate because Cudjoe had no means of paying. They instead ordered that she sign a bond for two years, from September 30, to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.
Cudjoe was also ordered to report to the San Fernando Probation office on the last Friday of each month, agree to counselling and to enrol in an adult skill programme.
Justice Weekes warned if she breached the bond, the court will consider a custodial sentence.
Cudjoe’s attorney Lisa Singh Phillip, who appeared on behalf of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority (LAAA), agreed to the bond.
State attorney Anjelica Teelucksingh also agreed that custodial sentence was not the appropriate sentence given her circumstances.
Facts of the case
In October 2013, Cudjoe and a teenager boarded a taxi in San Fernando.
On reaching St John’s Village, she snatched the purse, which contained among other things a cellphone and $93, from a female passenger in the car.
The two women were subsequently arrested and charged but neither the phone nor money were recovered.
The teenager pleaded not guilty and was placed on bail.
Cudjoe pleaded guilty and in a plea of mitigation she told Ramoo-Hayes she was a single mother and needed money to buy food for her children, Kerdellia, Kadisha and Kerdel.
The matter caught the attention of Legal Aid and Advisory Authority (LAAA) director Israel Khan, SC, who directed attorney Lisa Singh to file a notice of appeal on the grounds of the severity of the sentence and further that it was her first offence.
Three days after her imprisonment, Singh made an application for bail before Ramoo-Haynes but it was denied. An application was then made before Justice Geoffrey Henderson in chamber who granted the bail.