Mother of six freed on drug trafficking charge, sentence overturned  

A mother of six was Friday freed of a drug trafficking charge and had her three-year sentence overturned by the Demerara Full Court.

In 2019, Valencia Carmichael, a 39-year-old woman of Heatburn Village, East Bank Berbice was sentenced at the Berbice Magistrate’s Court after she pleaded guilty to trafficking 848 grams of cannabis on April 18, 2019.

The narcotics were found in a barrel at a home where Carmicheal along with other occupants stayed.

Carmichael was released on bail pending her appeal.

Her attorneys, George Thomas and Tuanna Hardy, in their application for appeal argued that the Magistrate erred in law by failing to consider the unambiguous and voluntariness of Carmichael’s plea.

In the application, Carmicheal said that she pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking charge because her children were in custody at the Police Station.

The attorneys further argued that the Magistrate failed to adequately consider their client’s case and passed an excessive sentence.

Justices Sandil Kissoon and Brassington Reynolds, who presided over the case, upheld the appeal and overturned Carmichael’s sentence.