Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 20, 2015 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News
– Convict tells court, “The devil took control of me. I didn’t want to do it”.
Two St. Lucians busted with cocaine concealed in the form of dildos in their vaginas were yesterday jailed
for a total of 98 months, after they admitted to trafficking in the substance, when they appeared in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
The women, 38- year-old, Chermisa Wheeler, a cosmetologist, and her 48-year-old cousin, Andree Willy , a babysitter, pleaded guilty to separate drug trafficking charges before City Magistrate Judy Latchman.
Wheeler admitted that on November 18, at the Woodlands Hospital, she had 88 grams of cocaine in her possession for the purpose of trafficking, while Willy confessed that on the same day, at the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) headquarters, Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown, she had 298 grams of cocaine in her possession, also for the purpose of trafficking.
Wheeler was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of $79,200. Willy was jailed for 50 months and fined $268,200.
Police Prosecutor, Inspector Shellon Daniels explained to the court that the two women are nationals of St. Lucia and they came to Guyana for vacation. She said that on the day in question, Wheeler and Willy were both outgoing passengers at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight BW 524. They were destined for their homeland.
Daniels related that CANU ranks conducted searches on the women after observing them acting suspiciously, while they were approaching the scanning machine. She said that Willy was arrested and taken to CANU headquarters, where she confessed to having cocaine in her vagina. The prosecutor stated that the woman was subsequently taken to the hospital, where she removed a dildo-shaped package from her privates and handed
it over to an officer.
Willy was told of the offence committed, arrested and charged.
Wheeler also removed a dildo-shaped package from her vagina while at CANU headquarters.
Willy sobbed and told the Magistrate, “the devil took control of me. I didn’t want to do it”.
All mitigating factors were considered by the Magistrate before the women were sentenced. Magistrate Latchman considered the fact that the duo pleaded guilty, and did not waste the court’s time, the prevalence and seriousness of the offence, and the method used to traffic the drug. She added that the court also made its ruling based on the street value of the cocaine.
The St. Lucians had no legal representation and both told the court that they have no pending or previous matters.
Kaieteur News reported yesterday that the women were under CANU’s radar after the unit had busted two men at an Alpha International Hotel, Ogle, East Coast Demerara, with a quantity of cocaine pellets, last Friday.
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