On Monday's news, we told you how police had to settle for firearms charges for 5 of the 12 Guatemalans they detained in connection with a drug bust. Now, everyone expected that they would be charged for trafficking the one thousand pounds of cocaine which was found off the Coastal Road. But, the cops didn't have direct evidence to tie them to the drugs, and so, they had to charge them for a small cache of weapons that some in the group were caught with.
It may appear that they got off easy, but that's not exactly the case. Magistrate Emmerson Banner has slapped fines of more than a hundred thousand dollars on the 2 defendants brave enough to plea guilty to possession of that stash of illegal guns and bullets.
They are Franco Carias and Sergio Wilfredo Morales Godoy and they took the plea for a slew of firearms charges.
Carias pleaded to 1 count of keeping an unlicensed firearm for a chrome 9 mm pistol, keeping unlicensed ammunition for 47 live rounds of 9mm bullets, keeping prohibited materials for a chrome extended magazine, keeping an unlicensed firearm for chrome and black 9mm pistol, keeping a prohibited firearm for a 40 mm pistol, keeping unlicensed ammunition for 39 live rounds of 9mm ammunition, keeping prohibited ammunition for 29 live rounds of .40 bullets, keeping a prohibited material for an extended magazine on the 9mm pistol, and keeping prohibited material for an extended magazine on the .40 pistol.
Mario Rodolfo Lopez Moreira pleaded to keeping an unlicensed firearm for a 9mm pistol, keeping a prohibited material for a 0.40 extended magazine, keeping a prohibited firearm for a camouflage and chrome 0.40 pistol, and keeping prohibited ammunition for 36 live rounds of 0.40 bullets.
Magistrate Emmerson Banner, who presided over their arraignment, adjourned for 3 days, to consider submissions from their attorneys, Leeroy Banner and Emmerita Anderson. The defense attorneys urged the court to impose fines, instead of a prison sentence, since the defendants did not waste the court's time with a full trial.
The Magistrate returned today, and agreed that they had saved the court's time and that allowed him use discretion in giving out fines for the firearms offenses. But it didn't mean he would be lenient, Magistrate Banner stressed that the fines needed to reflect the seriousness of the charges, and the fact that the country is struggling to contain gun violence, and drug trafficking.
The first red flag for the Magistrate was that they entered the country illegally, which they have acknowledged guilt for. Moreover, they came armed for some purpose.
The Magistrate said, quote, "(from)their possession of these weapons and ammunition, I can only draw the inference that they were for some sort of illegal activity, activity that could have led to confrontation with our law-abiding citizens… as well with our security forces." End quote.
For Carias, Magistrate Banner imposed fines to a total of 65,545 dollars. The Magistrate ordered that he must pay that total forthwith, meaning today, and if he defaults, for each fine he hasn't paid, the judge has ordered that he must spend a total of 5 to 7 years in jail, and some of the sentences run both concurrently, and consecutively. That means that that he is at risk of spending approximately 14 years in jail.
For Moreira, the judge sentenced him to immediately pay fines to a total of 35,025 dollars. If he defaults, he could spend up to 12 years in jail, since the default prison sentence for each fine runs both concurrently and consecutively in some instances.
Once they have paid these fines, or served their prison sentence, they will be deported, like the other 7 Guatemalans who have already been given orders to leave by the Magistrate's Court.
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