Teen given 'last chance' after probation breach

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner issued a stern warning to a 19-year-old Warwick man who did not comply with his probation order.

“If you come before this court again I will lock you up,” Mr. Warner told Jamie Cann, Jr.

This came after Mr. Warner heard from Cann’s probation officer, Clifford Stephens, who said he had not seen the teenager since March this year.

Last week, Cann admitted stealing a bag and its contents from under the seat of a motorbike on the night April 11 this year. He also admitted causing in excess of $60 damage to the vehicle.

Mr. Warner heard how Cann and a group of friends were seen tampering with a bike in the City Hall parking lot on the night in question.

When Police arrived on the scene, Cann ran but was subsequently apprehended and asked them to give him a break because he was already on probation for another matter.

As he addressed Mr. Warner in court yesterday, Mr. Stephens told him that he had not seen Cann since granting him permission to fly out of the Island in March.

He said as recently as last week, he’d asked Mr. Cann’s father to get the man to call him, but had still had heard nothing.

Mr. Stephens added, he believed Cann was “salvageable” but had to want to make changes for the better.

When asked to give an explanation for why he had not been compliant with his probation order, Cann, who is employed in the print press at The Royal Gazette, said that he had fallen off the path since his trip, which he described as a medical one for his girlfriend.

He said that it had taken a toll on him and that attending probation meetings slipped his mind. He admitted that he’d made bad choices and was hanging with bad company, as he asked for the Court’s mercy.

However, Mr. Warner questioned how could probation slip his mind when it was specifically put into place to help him with staying on the right path and told him: “Your explanation is not acceptable. You are doing the same thing that you were doing before. You have not demonstrated that you need another chance.”

Mr. Warner also pondered why Cann would steal from someone else when he was gainfully employed and could afford to buy things for himself.

“You are just a thief. Is that what you are telling me?” Mr. Warner asked Cann.

Cann’s older brother, Ru-Jzarr Simmons, then was given permission to speak on Cann’s behalf. He told the Magistrate that he had seen both positive and negative changes in Cann and described him as “head-focused”. He added that Cann does a good job of maintaining employment and looking out for his family.

“I love him and I don’t want to see him go to jail,” he concluded.

Mr. Warner ordered the man begin a new probation order, effective for two years and requested Cann return to court in three months for a review. He also ordered Cann to pay $300 restitution immediately for the damage to the bike.