Addicted burglar gets 18 months

Al Handel Pearson, 37, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to a residential burglary he said he committed to feed his cocaine habit. 

Chief Magistrate Nova Hall said on Wednesday she was considering Pearson’s record of convictions, which included four previous burglaries and drug consumption.  

“Persons with these types of antecedents who are addicted are best assisted by the Drug Rehabilitation Court,” she said. 

However, Pearson had already been admitted to that court; he did not comply with the programme and his participation order was revoked, the magistrate reported after looking at his file. With the drug court not being an option, she did not consider Pearson to be a candidate for a supervision order, she said. 

This was a reference to the Alternative Sentencing Law, which provides for supervision by a probation officer during the period of a suspended sentence. 

Attorney Prathna Bodden told the court Pearson had been in Northward Prison since his arrest in October. Prison was not a deterrent because of the easy availability of drugs there, she said. She suggested Pearson could be better off on the street with a curfew, electronic monitoring, random testing and other conditions.  

Ms Bodden said he had started using drugs at an early age and thought he needed even more help and heavier intervention than someone who started using later in life. She described him as more mature now, with more to lose and ready to take advantage of help offered. She said he had taken the initiative to start attending available classes at the prison – he wasn’t sitting and wasting time.  

The attorney said the burglary did not involve any damage to property to gain entry, nor was there any ransacking inside. Pearson had admitted the offence when arrested and told police he had swapped stolen items for drugs almost immediately afterward. He did direct police to where he thought they might find the stolen goods, but he was not sure if officers ever did recover them. 

When Pearson was first in court, the magistrate heard that he told police he had exchanged the stolen items for cocaine to the value of $300 (Caymanian Compass, 21 October).  

Crown Counsel Nicole Petit said she had nothing on file to indicate whether the items were recovered. They included a laptop computer and jewellery.  

She said the burglary occurred on 13 October. The resident did not realise she had left a bathroom window open until she returned home after work. After noting the missing items, she contacted police. She and another family member identified Pearson from CCTV footage that covered the perimeter of the dwelling. 

The value of the stolen items was not mentioned.