By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A WOMAN was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Tuesday for having a role in the robbery of a web shop manager in Long Island.
Daphne Knowles, of Cartwright’s, Long Island, appeared before Justice Bernard Turner to conclude the penalty phase of her trial relating to the events leading up to the death of Andrea Carroll in 2014.
Crown prosecutor Basil Cumberbatch had previously argued that Knowles’ actions warranted 25 years while her lawyer argued for a sentence near the 10-year mark.
Justice Turner said that although there was a hung verdict on the murder charge, her involvement in the planning and actual robbery, warranted a punishment sufficient to deter others committing similar crimes.
Knowles was sentenced to 14 years at the Department of Correctional Services.
However, she was credited for the three prison years spent on remand and will serve the rest of the 11 years effective from Tuesday.
Knowles initially stood trial before Justice Turner charged with murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Knowles was accused of having killed Carroll between November 28 and 29, 2014.
It was further alleged that Knowles conspired with others to commit robbery and actually robbed Carroll of cash belonging to Bowe’s Web Games Ltd.
Carroll was found dead with cuts, bruises, a broken neck and a broken spinal cord.
The prosecution produced witnesses who said that Knowles, a fired employee of Carroll, approached them about a plan to rob the web shop manager.
Knowles, when interviewed by police after Carroll’s death, denied that $14,000 found in her possession had belonged to the web shop.
She said that as a drug trafficker she did not need to rob and murder a web shop manager for money.
Her defence, however, was not completely accepted by the jury.
While the jury returned a hung verdict of 7-5 on the murder charge, which must he a unanimous verdict to be acceptable in law, Knowles was unanimously convicted on charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Knowles would have faced the death penalty if convicted of the murder.
The 12-member panel returned the verdicts within an hour after being excused to deliberate on three weeks of evidence.
Knowles has 21 days to contest her convictions and sentence to the Court of Appeal.
Knowles was represented by attorney Sonia Timothy.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 7 months ago
Bank of The Bahamas ("BoB") gets robbed of mega millions by elistist political friends and business cronies of our corrupt PM Christie, who as Minister of Finance had full repsonsibility for all that went on at BoB, and no one ended up in jail. In fact, Christie authorized that the sacked former managing director of BoB, Paul McWeeney, be paid a very hefty severence bonus and be given a sweet consultancy deal with the Ministry of Finance and/or Office for his role in granting millions and millions of dollars of extremely generous unsecured overdraft facilities, loans and other advances to Christie's cohorts that will never be repaid. But the poor woman mentioned in this article is found guilty of stealing the relatively pultry sum by comparison of $14,000 from one of Christie's dear numbers bosses and she ends up going to prison for 14 years; a year for each $1,000. She was not found guilty of murder, but gets 14 years for robbery! Meanwhile Paul McWeeney and the others involved in the royal fleecing of BoB have been hansomely rewarded for doing so and are prancing around town free as a jay bird! It sure seems our courts (judges) are much more concerned about sending messages to protect the ill-gotten wealth of the racketerring numbers bosses than they are about justice itself!!
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