The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON 

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ first trafficking convict was spared life imprisonment yesterday when a Supreme Court judge sentenced her to 15 years in jail.

Senior Justice Jon Isaacs did not consider that life imprisonment was a fitting sentence in 24-year-old Chevanese “Sasha” Hall’s case as he said “to impose such a sentence would in effect remove any hope of you changing your life.”

Hall, who was found guilty in March on four counts of trafficking in persons and two counts of withholding identification papers, faced between 15 years to life imprisonment on the first four charges and 10 years imprisonment on the remaining offences. 

Senior Justice Isaacs sentenced Hall, a Jamaican, to 15 years imprisonment for trafficking in persons in Grand Bahama in January 2013 and 10 and seven years respectively on the remaining charges of withholding identification papers.

The judge noted that the sentences were to run concurrently and would be reduced to 13 years and five months given that the convict had already served 17 months on remand waiting, during and after trial.

Hall’s lawyer Jiaram Mangra told The Tribune that his client’s punishment was within the range of the law.

“The sentences were in the range that the judge could have given and given the fact that the more serious offence of trafficking in persons carries a maximum of life, less the time she already served in prison is quite reasonable in the circumstances and the judge decided, in listening to both sides of the prosecution and defence, saw fit and exercised his discretion in delivering that particular sentence,” he said.

“Now that the trial is complete, we’ll have to take instructions on whether the next step will be a possible appeal,” he added.

The judge, addressing Hall, said: “You preyed upon the vulnerabilities of two young women. You promised them jobs, but provided only misery for them both.”

The court noted that Hall acted like a jailer to the victims and “notwithstanding there were no bars, they both felt confined by the circumstances they found themselves in.”

Senior Justice Isaacs also said that while she did not act alone, as the other culprit that facilitated the crimes, a pilot, is still at large, “the most egregious feature of this case is the deception.”

“No doubt your actions have succeeded in (ending) these victims’ ability to trust anyone in the future,” he added.

The case’s lead prosecutor and director of public prosecutions, Vinette Graham-Allen, said at the sentencing that regional governments and international organisations agree that the offences of which Hall was convicted were very serious. She noted that, particularly, trafficking in persons, could be described “as a modern day form of slavery involving victims who are typically forced, coerced, intimidated and threatened into various forms of exploitation.”