Jackson man sentenced to 514 days for illegal gun and ammunition possession

Jasan Anderson Phillips of St Michael has been jailed for 514 days after pleading guilty to carrying a .380 pistol and six rounds of ammunition. Justice Blackman warned of rising gun violence in Barbados.

Jackson resident jailed over illegal .380 pistol found at Browne's Gap

Barbados Today reports that a man from Jackson, St Michael has been sentenced to 514 days in prison after admitting to illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition. Jasan Anderson Phillips appeared before Justice Anthony Blackman in the No. 3A Supreme Court, where he had previously pleaded guilty to carrying a .380 automatic pistol and six rounds of ammunition on February 28, 2023.

Justice Blackman opened with a nine-year starting sentence before applying reductions for Phillips' guilty plea, mitigating factors and the 514 days already served on remand — leaving Phillips with an equal 514 days still to serve behind bars.

"Guns kill, maim, terrorise and intimidate," Justice Blackman said. "As a sentencing court, I must address the fact that too many lethal weapons are too readily available. Too many are carried and too many are used always to devastating effect on individual victims and with insidious corrosive impact on the well being of the community."

State Counsel Treann Knight, who prosecuted the case, told the court that police had gone to Browne's Gap, Jackson, where they observed a number of people at a community centre. Officers spotted Phillips carrying a black bag and stopped him, noting he matched the description of a man believed to be in possession of a firearm.

A search of the bag turned up nothing, but a subsequent check of his strap bag revealed the pistol. Phillips told police he had found the weapon inside a black sock, near a tree along a track close to his home.

Source: Barbados Today