By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A TEENAGER who pleaded guilty to the attempted armed robbery of a police officer has been given a second chance to avoid running afoul of the law when he was sentenced to five years probation yesterday.
Antonio Butler, 18, and his lawyer Terrel Butler, entered into a plea agreement with Crown prosecutor Anishka Hanchell concerning the June 30, 2014 attempted accosting of a police sergeant.
Justice Gregory Hilton, the presiding judge over the matter, said he agreed with the plea agreement given the circumstances and that Butler was a minor at the time of the commission of the offence.
Around 7pm on the day in question, Butler was among a group of others who held up a policeman with a Taser near the Superwash laundromat on Carmichael Road.
The officer, however, retrieved and discharged his licensed firearm. The group of young men ran away, but the officer managed to hold on to Butler.
The judge sentenced Butler to probation based on the terms listed in the document that was authorised by the attorney general.
If Butler fails to avoid any brushes with the law before 2020, he will be imprisoned at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
In law, the offence of attempted armed robbery is considered and treated as seriously as armed robbery and a first time offender could receive up to 25 years imprisonment.
The court has the discretion to impose a stiffer penalty if the circumstances of the case merit a longer sentence.
The discretion, however, is restricted if a signed plea agreement exists between the Crown and lawyers for an accused who pleaded guilty to an offence in exchange for a mutually agreed sentence.
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