Two year sentence for machete attack

(CNS): A 20 year old man from East End will spend the next two years in jail after a violent attack with a machete and a knife on two men during a brawl that got out of hand in a family yard in February 2013. Antascio Rankine was handed the two year jail time despite his relatively clean criminal record as the judge described his attack on an uncle and another man during the dispute as “outrageous conduct.” The court heard that during a dispute in the yard in Eastland Drive, East End which erupted over cigarettes and insults. Rankine had attacked one man with a machete causing him injuries to his head and stabbed his uncle in the arm with a knife.

“This violent behavior in the context of drink is bad enough but the use of a machete made things even worse,” the sentencing judge said. “Because this was a family dispute made it no better as family members need to be protected by the courts from violence like this. Not content with using a machete you also used a knife…It is wholly unacceptable and lucky the injuries are not much worse. You could’ve killed somebody.”

Rankine had pleaded guilty on the day of his trial as a result of on-going negotiations with the crown over other charges he faced which were eventually dropped. But Justice Michael Mettyear, the visiting judge presiding over the sentencing stated that this should not have delayed the guilty pleas for the charges which he admitted.The judge indicated that discounts on sentences were for tendering please at the earliest opportunity not after last minute “robing room discussions with counsel” he noted.

He also said it was pointless to ask Rankine to pay compensation to his victims for their medical bills, which the crown had revealed had amounted to over $15,000 between them, as the young man had no job and no money or any prospect of paying the money back. Justice Mettyear said he wished he could order compensation for the two men who had suffered greatly as a result of Rankine’s violent behavior.

Pointing to what he described as a “depressing social enquiry report” the judge said Rankine had been rated as having a risk of reoffending as a result of him hanging with the wrong crowd, smoking ganja, misbehaving, and having a bad temper with anger management problems.

The judge did however, point out that Rankine was still young and this was his first serious offence as his previous criminal record was for possession of ganja. Justice Mettyear said, “It is quite impossible to deal with this offence other than with a custodial sentence.”

Starting at 3-4 years because of the level of violence he reduced the sentence to 2.5 years as a result of his youth and his late guilty plea. In addition he tookinto consideration that Rankine had been on curfew with an electronic tag for some 18 months before his trial. In the end he handed down one year for the stabbing and 2 years for the machete attack both to run concurrently.

Alongside Rankine in the dock was Roland Welcome who was one of several other men allegedly involved in the major brawl but the only other person to be charged with an offence. Welcome who is currently serving a twelve month sentence for possession of a BB gun had also faced assault charges but those were dropped leaving him facing just a charge of damage to property.

The court heard that he had smashed up a truck belonging to one of the men at the yard that night involved in the dispute with a piece of two by four but his arm had also been broken during the melee.

However the judge said “this was disgraceful bad tempered drunken behavior” as he added a further three months to Welcome’s existing sentence.