The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal has affirmed the two-and-a-half-year sentence of a man who was caught riding in a car with two loaded firearms three years ago.

In August 2018, an unmarked police vehicle observed a silver coloured Chevy Cruze speeding down Montrose Avenue. As a result, officers pursued the car and ordered all four of its occupants to get out when the vehicle came to a stop.

Jason Ferguson, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was one of the men police arrested that morning.

When officers searched the car, they found two .45 Glock pistols and 30 .45 ammunition rounds in the centre console between the driver and front passenger seats. Sometime later, Ferguson and his co-accused, Hubert Mackey, who was driving, were each charged with two counts of possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition with intent to supply.

In February, Ferguson was found guilty and sentenced to two-and-a half-years imprisonment and fined $10,000 or an additional year behind bars.

He later appealed his conviction and sentence on the grounds the magistrate was wrong to find that he acted along with another person. He further argued that the magistrate erred when he failed to call the other two defendants to answer the charge; a fact he asserted made his conviction unsafe and unsatisfactory and his conviction too harsh.

After reserving their decision, Justices Sir Michael Barnett, Jon Isaacs, and Milton Evans dismissed Ferguson’s appeal and affirmed both of his sentences.

In their judgment, delivered by Justice Isaacs, the panel noted the evidence relating to the two rear seat passengers was “limited to mere presence.”

“Neither admitted to knowing anything about the firearms and ammunition; and while clear knowledge of the firearms and ammunition could be imputed to the appellant and Mackey due to their positioning in relation to those items, there was nothing shown in the evidence of the witnesses for the prosecution that the rear seat passengers could see the items from their vantage point,” Justice Isaacs stated.

“Section 5(b) of the Firearms Act empowered the magistrate to impose a sentence of up to 10 years in addition to a $10,000 fine on each count faced by the appellant. The magistrate has imposed the maximum fine allowable; however, he has ordered that his sentences are to run concurrently. I do not find that in the circumstances of this case the sentences and fine imposed by the magistrate are unduly severe as to cause the court to intervene.”