By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 64-YEAR-OLD man who could not give a satisfactory account of how he came to possess a car battery was yesterday placed on probation for six months.
Police arrested John Johnson on August 12, after they found him with a car battery that they suspected he had stolen or had appropriated through dishonest means. The prosecution said the officers found the car part after they stopped and questioned the senior citizen for loitering in the Parkgate area.
He pleaded guilty to unlawful possession and vagrancy when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis.
The court was told that officers on mobile patrol approached Johnson when they noticed him acting suspiciously. After they informed him that he would be searched, officers noticed a brand-new car battery in his hands. When they questioned him about it, he claimed he got the battery from his brother who lived nearby. At the time, Johnson also told police he was living in an abandoned building in the vicinity.
The prosecution said when the police made inquiries around the area, they could not find the man to whom Johnson claimed he was related in order to verify his story. He was subsequently arrested and charged.
Yesterday, Johnson told the magistrate he got the battery out of St Margaret Church’s garage. He said the church hosted a lot of food drives and claimed different people would come and drop off all kinds of things as donations.
Still, Magistrate Rolle Davis told Johnson it was not likely for the church to be distributing car parts during their food giveaway. As a result, he accepted the accused’s guilty plea and placed him on six months probation. He warned him that if he was convicted of another offence during that timeframe, he would be sentenced to one month in jail.
Magistrate Rolle Davis also said if no one came to the police to claim the car battery in the next six months, it would be turned over for auction.
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