Ak­ile Si­mon

A 25-year-old San Juan man was yes­ter­day spared a jail sen­tence and or­dered to $12,000, af­ter he plead­ed guilty to rob­bing a for­eign na­tion­al. De­von Ed­wards, of Up­per Bushe Street, Mi­t­igual Road, changed his not-guilty plea to guilty and was se­vere­ly rep­ri­mand­ed by Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trate Mau­reen Ba­boolal-Gafoor, for com­mit­ting a se­ri­ous at­tack against Bryan Ro­get. Ro­get, 35, of Mi­a­mi, Flori­da, was at­tacked by Ed­wards and an­oth­er man af­ter the he parked his car on Al­fre­do Street, Wood­brook, on Wednes­day. He was beat­en about the body, bit­ten on his right in­dex fin­ger and robbed of a Sam­sung cell­phone val­ued $1,500 by the men, who de­mand­ed he hand over the keys to his car.

In mit­i­ga­tion, Ed­wards said Ro­get was mis­tak­en for an­oth­er man who had ear­li­er at­tacked his friend. Mag­is­trate Ba­boolal-Gafoor told Ed­wards she was mind­ed to im­pose a cus­to­di­al sen­tence against him. She said: "What hap­pened to Mr Ro­get is re­al­ly dis­grace­ful. It is not right. Mem­bers of the pub­lic have a right to go about their busi­ness with­out be­ing at­tacked. "The court has a du­ty to pro­tect mem­bers of the pub­lic and this gen­tle­man (Ro­get) should not have suf­fered what he did," she said.

Ed­wards was or­dered to pay Ro­get $1,500 in com­pen­sa­tion for his cell­phone, $2,500 for the in­juries he sus­tained and $8,000 to the court for com­mit­ting the of­fence. He was giv­en un­til Ash Wednes­day, the same day Ro­get leaves for Mi­a­mi, to pay $4,000 to the vic­tim or serve six weeks' in prison. Ed­wards was giv­en un­til Oc­to­ber 30 to pay the $8,000 fine or serve two years. Ed­wards was held by PC Gon­za­les of the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion. Cpl Al­bert Jack­son of the Wood­brook CID laid the charges.