KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – A magistrate has sentenced a 19-year-old youth to one year and four months in jail after he pleaded guilty to assaulting his mother with a knife earlier this month. Magistrate Kaywana Jacobs imposed the sentence on Ajauné Grant, who in June 2023 beat his stepfather with a metal pipe, one year after attacking his principal with brass knuckles. Grant pleaded guilty before the Biabou Magistrate’s Court to charges that on September 1, this year, he assaulted Keneisha Grant, with intent to commit an assault occasioning bodily harm. He also pleaded guilty to a charge that he assaulted his mother, occasioning actual bodily harm on that day. “Mr. Grant, are you ok?” Magistrate Jacobs asked as she handed down the sentence, to which the accused responded “I listening you”. In delivering the sentence the magistrate noted that Grant had in the past been bonded, fined, reprimanded and discharged adding “the only thing I have not seen here is a suspended sentence” noting that a bond is almost akin to a suspended sentence. “You didn’t even offer any apology and this is your mother you are talking about. So, Mr. Grant, I have to agree with the prosecutor that a custodial sentence is necessary in this case.” The court heard that the accused is the only child of his mother and that on Augst 30, he asked his mother for money to buy food. He was instructed to go to a shop for the food with the instructions that the mother would pay. But the teen instead asked the shop owner for EC$10 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents). His mother later confronted him about this but the teen got annoyed and took up a knife and went to her room. The following day, the accused went and sat at the table with a knife and was looking at his mother and on September 1, the teen woke up mid-morning and began walking about with the knife in his hand. His mother was cleaning her room when the defendant approached her, grabbed her by the neck, began to choke her with his left hand and put the knife to her neck. The mother wrestled with her son and the knife broke. She called for help and neighbours went to assist her. He ran away and the matter was reported to police who investigated and arrested the teen. He opted not to give a statement to the investigator. Asked if he had anything to say in mitigation, the accused told the magistrate that he had nothing to say. He had earlier told the court that he was a construction worker and his last day on the job being September. 2, when police arrested him. In making his submission on sentencing, prosecutor Delando Charles told the court that he was doing so “with a heavy heart. “The records show it is not his first rodeo,” the prosecutor said, adding that the court had tried to have Grant go through counselling so he could be reformed. “The VC (virtual complainant) is his mother. While I agree that given his age he may be a good candidate for reform, his lengthy conviction record tells me that he is way passed that, even at his age,” the prosecutor said. He asked the court to send a message to Grant and other youngsters that that type of behaviour would not be tolerated and that the court would not look at the offence slightly. “Maybe he needs to hear iron bars close behind him,” Charles said. In March 2023, Grant beat his stepfather with a metal pipe in an unprovoked attack that resulted in actual bodily harm and damaged his cellular phone, valued at EC$800. In May 2022 when Grant, a student of the Mountain View Adventist Academy was suspended from classes, attacked his principal with brass knuckles. In June 2023, Grant was ordered to pay EC$10,000 after he pleaded guilty to a charge that on May 31, 2023, he used a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or any awful authority. The teen caused EC$8,000 in damage to the vehicle.
