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Mother gets five years in jail for heroin offence

File photo by Mark TatemA single mother has been jailed for five years for conspiracy to supply heroin.

A single mother who admitted conspiring to supply heroin was this afternoon sentenced to five years in prison.

Shakeda Davis, 28, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to supply a controlled drug between an unknown date and April 25, 2012, and possessing both cannabis and cannabis resin with intent to supply in a separate occasion.

She was charged alongside 49-year-old Winston Burgess, who was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for conspiring to supply heroin.

The court heard that on February 17, 2012, police attended Davis’ Schools Drive, Devonshire home to perform a search. While one officer knocked on her front door, a second officer noticed Davis climbing out of a window at the back of the house.

Once she was on the ground, the officer told her to stop. She reached into her pants, produced a plastic bag and threw it into a neighbouring property.

The bag was recovered and found to contain 78.3g of cannabis and 1.35g of cannabis resin. Davis was arrested and released on bail.

Less than a month later, on March 5, customs officers intercepted a package addressed to Deandre Flanders containing a CD and cassette player. They searched the device and discovered a brown brick, found to contain 154.18g of 77 percent pure heroin.

The court heard that if the drugs were sold in 3mg decks, it could fetch up to $793,340.

The officers allowed the package to continue to the Fed Ex offices on Mill Creek Road and waited for it to be collected.

On the afternoon of April 24, 2012, Burgess, of Middletown Drive, Pembroke, attended the Fed Ex offices, telling staff he was there to pick up the package. When told he would have to wait, he told staff he would walk to a nearby store.

Police were notified and when they arrived they noticed Davis sitting on a bike outside the office using a cellular phone. Based on her behaviour, the officers determined that she was acting as a lookout.

Davis eventually returned to Fed Ex, where he was arrested. Questioned, he told officers: “I was just doing a favour for someone.”

Police later went to Davis’ home on Schools Drive and searched the property, recovering a laptop and a cellular phone. Officers were able to recover data from the phone, including SMS messages containing the details of the seized package.

Davis was released on bail, but arrested again on September 6 — a day before she was to be charged — while attempting to board a flight to Atlanta.

Both Davis and Burgess pleaded guilty to their offences on the day their Supreme Court trial was set to begin.

Delivering her sentence, Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons noted the severe and devastating impact drugs have on the community, but acknowledged that both defendants had put forward guilty pleas.

In the matter of the heroin, she sentenced Davis to five years in prison and Burgess to four-an-a-half years, noting that Davis had played a more significant role in the offence.

Mrs Justice Simmons further sentenced Davis to two years in prison for both possessing cannabis and cannabis resin with intent to supply, with a year added to both offences because they took place in an increased penalty zone.

However all of Davis’ sentences were ordered to run concurrently, with both Davis and Burgess’ time spent in custody taken into account.