The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A 24-year-old man who broke into a woman’s house was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday.

Remeldo Clarke was arrested after he was accused of breaking into a woman’s Farm Road residence on September 23, 2019.

The prosecution alleged the accused also attempted to escape from Fox Hill police station and assaulted an officer that was on duty that same day.

Clarke originally denied the allegations during a hearing before Assistant Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain last year.

However, after spending 15 months on remand, he returned to court on Friday to plead guilty to the charges.

The court heard that day, officers, acting on information, proceeded to the complainant’s residence. Upon their arrival, they observed Clarke standing next to a car outside of the home. The prosecution said the officers also observed another man inside the residence who appeared to be searching it. They then contacted the owner of the home who said she left her residence secured and gave no one permission to enter it.

Both suspects were subsequently arrested in reference to housebreaking. In an interview with police at the Fox Hill police station, Clarke denied the allegations and claimed he didn’t know the second man and had only dropped him off at the residence.

When given an opportunity to speak during the hearing, Clarke told the magistrate he never broke into the house or stole anything. He also claimed he was not “100 percent sure” what the second man was “dealing with that day”.

In response, Magistrate Swain told Clarke, based on his explanation, she could not accept his guilty plea.

After this, the defendant said he only broke into the complainant’s house because he was “going through things and didn’t have a job”.

As a result, Magistrate Swain said she would sentence Clarke to three years in prison and deduct the 15 months he already spent on remand from his sentence.

After the sentence was passed down, Clarke became irate and accused the magistrate of forcing him to change his plea. He was subsequently escorted out of the courtroom.