A man was yesterday sentenced to 56 months in jail for robbing an American citizen in a knife-point attack.
“I wasn’t thinking straight,” was the excuse given to Georgetown Magistrate Judy Latchman after she read a robbery charge to Michael White.
White, a pushcart operator, pleaded guilty to robbing Taylor Lewinski of a quantity of items that were in her backpack, including her American identification card and her iPhone, on April 22, at the Avenue of the Republic.
According to Police Prosecutor Shawn Gonsalves, on the day in question, around 6.05 pm, Lewinski was heading north in the vicinity of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts when White rolled up on a bicycle and held on to the left side of her bag. He was met with resistance from Taylor. This caused White to pull out a knife and he pointed it to the woman, while demanding that she release the bag. As a result, she complied.
However, an alarm was later raised and White rode off, turning south then west along Brickdam. He then collided with a pedestrian in the vicinity of the Parika bus park, fell and was apprehended by the pedestrian. White was later taken to the Stabroek Police Outpost where a search was conducted and the backpack containing all the complainant’s items was found.
Prior to sentencing White, Magistrate Latchman admonished him to work for his own things.
