The Court of Appeal has upheld four drug convictions and an 11-year prison sentence for convicted street dealer Wayne Carlos Myles, who is said to have supplied nearly one pound of cocaine over two years.
This is the second time he has lost such an appeal.
In a written judgment handed down on Monday, 18 July, the appeal court set out its reasons for dismissing Myles’ case which was heard in May of this year.
Myles was initially convicted on two charges of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and two charges of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 10 Oct. 2014 and 15 June 2016.
The first charge stems from a search of Myles and his BMW car in the parking lot of a West Bay Road bar on 15 June 2016, during which officers recovered five packets containing a white powdery substance that later tested positive for cocaine, with a total weight of 1.88 grams.
He was arrested and later released on bail.
Then, nine months later, he was searched along North Church Street after officers noticed him exiting his vehicle “and acting in a suspicious manner”. Three finely wrapped packages of cocaine were recovered from the lining of his shoes – officers later confirmed them to be 4.65grams of cocaine. A cellphone was also taken from him.
When officers downloaded the contents of the phone, they were able to recover messages which led them to the final two charges of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Myles is said to have accepted possession of the drugs but denies having any intention of supplying it, and claims “he was a drug user, not a drug dealer”.
Grounds for appeal
Myles, through his attorney, claimed Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn, who initially presided over his Summary Court trial, had erred in law by allowing an RICPS officer “to give opinion evidence on matters which fell outside her established expertise”.
Gunn should have not allowed the trial to go ahead because the final two charges were “sat on” by the prosecution and used to get a “second bite of the cherry”, he claimed.
Myles’ lawyers also allege that the third charge was statute barred and therefore should have been excluded from the trial process.
When returning their decision for dismissing the application, the appeal judges stated the first ground of appeal was sought to raise an error in law. However, the judges ruled there was no error in law and the magistrate was right to have accepted the officer’s opinion evidence.
When dismissing the second ground of appeal, the appeal court judges said, “If we had had jurisdiction, we would have had no hesitation in concluding that there was no abuse of process.”
The judges ruled that the evidence obtained from the phone was recovered within the required six months of Myles’ arrest, and he was tried and convicted 12 months after.
“There can be no suggestion that it was not possible for him to have a fair trial before the Summary Court after this period of time,” wrote the judges.
When upholding the prison sentence, they said Magistrate Gunn was right to have concluded that Myles was a street-level dealer, who ran a for-profit sole-trader operation for almost two years and had numerous customers.
“A sentence of 11 years for the sale of 11.7 ounces of cocaine over a 20-month period by a street dealer carrying out his own business cannot possibly be said to be manifestly excessive,” wrote the judges.
Myles, who appeared via video link from Northward Prison, expressed his desire to appeal the judgment to the UK Privy Council.
In 2019, Myles was the first person to be convicted of pimp-related charges, after a Grand Court jury returned mixed verdicts on charges of living off the earnings of prosecution.
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