A father of 13 who claimed he turned to cocaine to ease his “woman problems” was jailed for five months yesterday.
Atherly Williams, 47, seemed amused by the incident, chuckling as he explained how he found himself in this situation.
Williams pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court. He was arrested by PC Rampersad on Saturday around 1.10 am after the officer searched him at Pointe- a- Pierre Road and found 0.4 grammes of cocaine in his right hand.
Williams was fined in March for a similar offence and was still on a one-year bond for a similar offence from last September.
He told Senior Magistrate Cherril-Anne Antoine that since his last arrest he had no dealings with cocaine.
However, Williams said on that night he was heading to the Point Fortin Borough celebrations with his girlfriend, but they had a “fall out” and she put him out the vehicle.
Williams claimed he went to a nearby drug block where he got the drug free. In sentencing him to jail, the magistrate noted that he had 13 previous convictions, but five within recent times.
In the same court, Joshua Smith, 32, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine. His mother told the court that he was a psychiatric patient and she had tried on several occasions without success to enrol him in rehabilitation programmes.
Asked by magistrate Antoine whether he was interested in drug treatment, Smith declined. He was arrested by PC Sheraz Mohammed around 9.30 pm on Friday at Crichlow Street, San Fernando.
Mohammed found 0.5 grammes of cocaine in Smith’s right hand. Smith blamed his parents for his lack of educational development.
“The stress coming from home,” he said. However, the magistrate told him there were many people with no parents who were taking advantage of the opportunities in the country to advance themselves.
“You should not be blaming anyone,” said the magistrate. Noting that just March he was fined $800 for a similar offence, Antoine jailed him for three months.
Robert Ramdass, 43, a scrap iron dealer, who had five previous convictions, also pleaded guilty to cocaine possession.
He admitted that PC Williams stopped him while he was walking along Cipero Street on Friday night, searched him and found 0.5 grammes of cocaine in his right hand. The magistrate gave him a month to pay a $1,000 fine or serve three months in prison.