Bahamians get 30 days
WESTERN BUREAU — The five Bahamian fishermen who were held at the Wyndham Beach and Golf Resort last Thursday, were Monday sentenced to 30 days imprisonment.
The five men, who were charged with overstaying their time in the island, are:
* Anesto Armbrister, of Fox Hill in the Bahamas;
* Vincent Smith, 40, also of Fox Hill;
* Nathan Stubbs, 32, of Nassau;
* Christopher Rolle, 33, also of Nassau; and
* his brother Nathaniel Rolle, 30, of Cat Island.
They were taken into policy custody last Thursday evening when the police conducted an operation at the hotel where they were staying at the time.
Armbrister, who arrived in the island on December 12 had been given permission to remain until January 9 while Smith, who arrived on February 6, had been given a week.
Stubbs arrived in the island on February 2 and was given no extension to remain in the island. He nonetheless overstayed for over three weeks. As for the Rolles brothers, they claimed to have arrived in the island via a boat but they have been unable to produce travel documents.
When the case was brought before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court Monday, their attorney, Clive Mullings, painted a picture of the men as individuals who had found themselves in untenable positions, forced to rely on the generosity of others to get by while on the island.
According to Mullings, Christopher Rolle, for example, had no means of getting home since he had no travel documents while Armbrister had no boat. His boat, Mullings said, was stolen in St Ann. Christopher Rolle too, he said, had his boat stolen with his travel documents.
Despite their apparent lack of means to get home, however, the men somehow found each other and managed to take advantage of the facilities at a hotel.
When questioned about this by RM Paulette Williams who presided over the case, Mullings said fishermen from the Bahamas made a good living.
At the same time, the attorney said at least two of his clients had girlfriends in the country, and one also has a child in the island. As such, he said, the men were reluctant to leave.
RM Williams would not let the men off the hook that easily, however. She said she was concerned about their having managed to “regroup”, a factor, she said, that begged the question of how they had managed to do so and why. That aside, she said the men had failed to give a cohesive explanation of why they were in the country.
On this basis, the RM said she would not allow them to leave the island without doing time behind bars and proceeded to hand down the 30 day prison sentence.
After they do the jail time, she said, they are to be removed from the country.
Meanwhile, the 10 Cubans who were detained after arriving in the island last Friday night are still in police custody.
The group that includes a single female includes:
* Alex Romero, 36; Miguel Nunes, 21 and Phillip Chavas, 34 ;
* Benjamin Castatillas, 37; Antonio Morgonez, 30 and Ormaro Laorria, 26;
* Yuniel Seweira Vasques, 23; and the female Arel Tavez, 40.
The nine men are being held at the Barrett Town police station while the woman is being held at the Freeport police station.