Convicted robbers Kasnique Cupid and Richard Edward Nash have been sentenced to 10 years and six months and 12 years in prison, respectively, for a 2020 robbery at the Tortuga liquor store in Governors Square.
Appearing via video link on Friday, 17 June, Cupid and Nash listened on as Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop handed down their lengthy prison sentences. McDonald-Bishop convicted both defendants following a judge-alone trial in February.
The guilty verdicts were returned two years after the 7 Feb. 2020 incident when Nash and an unknown man, with their faces covered, entered the liquor store brandishing knives.
After demanding cash and assaulting an employee, they made off with CI$2,361 and US$181. They fled in Cupid’s white Toyota Noah which was parked in a nearby vacant lot.
Cupid is ‘relatively intelligent, shrewd and manipulative’
Cupid, who was 35 at the time of the robbery, was described as having orchestrated the incident to pay off debt on her vehicle which was about to be repossessed.
“From my observations of her, she is a relatively intelligent, shrewd and manipulative young woman,” said the judge, who added that Cupid preyed on Nash whose “low literacy capacity and dim employment prospects made him an easy target”.
When sentencing her, McDonald-Bishop began with a starting point of 10 years but elevated it to 11 for the joint aggravating factors, which include prior preparation, the attempt to conceal evidence, and the impact on the victims.
“She was an employee at the liquor store at the time, she had knowledge of the store that she used in the execution of the unlawful joint enterprise,” said the judge.
McDonald-Bishop added, “More than anything else, she showed no regard for her co-workers whom she knew would have been present at the time of the robbery.”
Turning to the mitigating factors, the judge noted that Cupid was a person of previous good character, and a mother of two young children, one of whom has special needs. For those reasons, she arrived at a sentence of 10 years and six months.
Nash was ‘cruel and degrading’
When sentencing Nash, McDonald-Bishop began with the aggravating factors, which included that he was the lead robber who not only threatened the cashier but assaulted her after she tried to flee.
“His deliberate and gratuitous violence was over and above what is inherent in the commission of the offence,” said the judge. “Mr. Nash attacked [the victim], which included kicking her in the face when she was defenceless on the ground.”
She added, “I view the kicks to the face, which would symbolise derogatory conduct, was not only above the degree of force inherent in the commission of the offence but was unwarrantedly cruel and degrading.”
Another aggravating factor that the judge raised was Nash’s high risk of re-offending and the fact that at the time of the robbery he was three months into a two-year suspended custodial sentence of 10 months for a charge of wounding.
“While his criminal history is low, there is a trend towards escalation,” said the judge while quoting a social inquiry report.
She noted there were no significant mitigating factors in Nash’s case and imposed a sentence of 12 years.
Finally, she ordered that whatever time was served in prison following the guilty verdicts, should be discounted from the sentence for both defendants, and that Nash be given a further reduction for time spent on a curfew leading up to the trial.
The second robber was never identified, nor was a third man who police believe acted as a lookout during the incident.
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“Another aggravating factor that the judge raised was Nash’s high risk of re-offending and the fact that at the time of the robbery he was three months into a two-year suspended custodial sentence of 10 months for a charge of wounding.”
Seems like he never should have got a suspended sentence in the first place.
Of course they both know who the third person was but aren’t saying. Should have added on a couple of years for that.