By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A 22-year-old man who claimed he accidentally broke into a woman’s house because he was intoxicated and thought he was entering a relative’s home, was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison.
Alrick Mackey was charged with burglary after he unlawfully entered Sonia Neely’s Kemps Bay, Andros residence in the early hours of October 18.
The Bluff resident owned up to the offence during his hearing before Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt Evans.
The court was told that around 4.40am on the morning in question, Mrs Neely told police that a man had broken into her home through a window. After she reported the matter, officers investigating her complaint visited her residence to dust for fingerprints and record a statement from her.
The prosecution said later that day, officers arrested Mackey after finding him near a convenience store on the island. When they executed a search warrant on the accused’s house, they found a Tommy Hilfiger collared shirt which they collected for evidence. When Mackey was questioned in custody, he admitted the offence and said he removed the screen out of one of Ms Neely’s back windows before crawling inside.
Yesterday, Mackey said at the time of the incident, he came from a party “intoxicated and went in the wrong house thinking it was the house of his relative or a friend he knew.” He said he did this because in South Andros, all of the settlers would “leave their doors and windows open because everyone was like family.”
“When I got inside the house I didn’t touch anybody or anything,” Mackey said. “I end up falling asleep inside and when I catch myself and realise I was in the wrong house, I open the door and left.”
Yesterday, Mackey’s lawyer also told the magistrate that her client did not show any “requisite intent to commit” the offence of burglary and asked her to tender justice with mercy.
However, in her sentencing, Magistrate Vogt Evans said the court was satisfied that Mackey had removed the window screen to enter a home without permission. She said while she considered Mackey’s early guilty plea and his relatively young age, she could not ignore the severity of the offence he committed.
She insisted that finding someone invading your space as a woman was a “detrimental thing.” She also said the crime was especially heinous since it occurred in a quiet settlement where criminal occurrences were rare.
As a result, she sentenced Mackey to six months in prison.
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