Farley Reid, a 26-year-old resident of ‘B’ Field Sophia, Georgetown was on Friday sentenced to two years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to an armed robbery charge.
Reid claims he is a Route 40 minibus conductor, a shop owner and a local singer; he appeared before Magistrate Faith McGusty and admitted that on July 31, 2019, at Parade Street, Georgetown, while being armed with a knife he robbed Conner Haynes of a $290,000 iPhone X cellphone.
Police Prosecutor Christopher Morris told the court that on the day in question Haynes, who is a foreign national, was walking along Parade Street when Reid attacked him from behind.
It is alleged that Ried held the victim at knifepoint and took away his phone.
The court heard that Reid was caught by two public-spirited persons as he attempted to escape; the stolen phone was recovered in his possession.
In court, Reid explained that he was at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary with his driver but left because he was feeling uncomfortable since he did not have the proper documents and was afraid of being arrested.
The man explained that he left the Police Headquarters and was walking along Parade Street when he saw “the white man.”
“I don’t know what meet in my head to snatch a phone… I was working honest…due to financial problems I get frustrated,” Reid told the court.
The Prosecutor urged the court to consider that a knife was used during the crime.
A photo of the weapon was presented in court which caused the Magistrate to inquire from Reid his reasons for having it in his possession.
“Duh knife I does use at home! Remember I come from Sophia suh I does keep it in case people sneak up on me,” the young man responded.
Reid said that he operates a shop at his home and is also a recording local artist.
As such, Magistrate McGusty asked him to sing one of his songs in court; Reid sang about being a positive youth and staying away from crime.
“You sing about positive but doing negative things,” the Magistrate told Reid.
