Mother sentenced to 10 years in prison for boyfriend’s gun possession: Cayman News Agency

(CNS): Last summer, Talia Asanti Barnes (25) was sentenced to ten years in prison for possessing her boyfriend’s gun. When sentencing her in December 2022, the court found that there were no special circumstances for her or the crime.

Details of the case were not revealed until recently, when the sentencing decision made by Judge Cheryll Richards in June 2023 was published on the court website.

last month, parliament The vote increased the minimum sentence for illegal gun possession from ten to twenty years after a trial, but Barnes’ case shows what can happen to anyone who has even the slightest contact with an illegal weapon.

Barnes was arrested and charged after police raided the home she shared with her boyfriend. Marcus Mendelson (34) In December 2021, an unlicensed, loaded Hi-Point semi-automatic pistol was found hidden in a printer in the couple’s bedroom.

DNA testing of the gun’s sights and grip revealed a mix of the defendant’s DNA. Although the jury found that Barnes must have known about and had access to the weapon, she argued that the gun belonged to her boyfriend; that she had nothing to do with it and had been afraid to call the police.

But Barnes and Manderson did not appear in court for trial after jumping bail and both were convicted of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

During sentencing, her attorney, Krister Brady of Brady Law, argued that there were special circumstances in the case that allowed the court to depart from the mandatory minimum sentence (which at the time was 10 years) because of her fear of Manderson, who had a long criminal history. He also noted that the gun in question was not used in the crime.

In a letter to the court, Barnes said she took “full responsibility for my poor choice of partner”. She pleaded for leniency and said “he threatened to kill me several times when we were arguing and I called the police each time”.

In apologizing for what he did, Barnes also wrote: “I did not hurt anyone; I obeyed the law, I said the gun was not mine, I told the truth, and I meant everything I said. I have never owned a gun before and do not intend to own one.”

But the court found that “making poor relationship choices,” regardless of her difficult upbringing, was not an exceptional circumstance. “The court also considered whether the minimum sentence was unreasonable and/or inappropriate in light of all the circumstances of this case,” Justice Richards said, but again ruled that it was not.

“The court finds that, viewed as a whole, there is nothing in the circumstances of the case that could be regarded as extraordinary circumstances, either in relation to the defendant or in relation to the offence. Nor, in the court’s opinion, is there any single significant or specific feature that would establish the existence of extraordinary circumstances,” Richards said in imposing a 10-year prison sentence, which will also take time served into account.