The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER told a Magistrate in court that it was her son’s marijuana that police officers found in her Market Street home over the weekend.

Shirley Fowler, when told by the court that she was being remanded to prison, said she didn’t know the drugs were in her house. She said they belonged to her son whom police caught redhanded.

“I don’t know anything about it,” the teary-eyed woman told Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell during her arraignment.

Fowler appeared before the court on a single charge of possession of dangerous drugs with intent to supply, alleged to have been committed on December 1 of this year.

It is claimed she was in possession of 1.5 ounces of Indian Hemp with intent to supply.


The unrepresented accused denied the allegation after it was read to her by the deputy chief magistrate.


Prosecutor Ercel Dorsett told the magistrate that 43 packets of suspected marijuana was found after police conducted a search warrant.


The magistrate told Fowler that she would be remanded to prison until her trial on June 14, 2013 and that she would have to apply for bail in the Supreme Court, as the lower court didn’t have that jurisdiction concerning the alleged offence.


Fowler then asked if she could speak and when given permission, she told the magistrate that “I didn’t know anything about it.”


“The police, they caught my son redhanded. I didn’t know he had it in the house. He ran when the police came,” she said.


“I have a special child on medication depending on me,” she added.


“Is there anyone else that can look after the child for you in your absence?” the magistrate asked.


“No, ma’am,” Fowler said.


“We’ll have Social Services speak to you when you go down to see if they can find someone to look after your child,” Deputy Chief Magistrate Bethell told the mother, who took a seat and began sobbing before she was escorted from court shortly afterwards.