Man sentenced to 6 months for cutlass attack

Treh Williams has been sentenced to six months imprisonment for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and another six months imprisonment for being armed with an offensive weapon.

Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards ordered that both sentences run concurrently (at the same time).

This means the offender will only spend six months at Her Majesty’s Prison.

The native of the United States Virgin Islands was sentenced for the two offences in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, February 16.

Williams was convicted for attacking a man with a cutlass from behind.

Reports are that, about 8am on February 1, the offender went to a car wash in Road Town where the complainant Reynoldo Hewlett works.

He asked Hewlett about the whereabouts of a certain woman, but Hewlett said he did not know.

The court heard that Williams left the area.

Shortly afterwards, he returned and reportedly approached Hewlett from behind, then slapped him across the shoulder with the flat of a cutlass.

Hewlett immediately ran. The offender gave chase while still clutching the weapon.

The court was told that Hewlett picked up a rock to defend himself.

Williams subsequently dropped the cutlass and ran away.

Hewlett sustained a ‘long’ laceration to his left shoulder, and was treated at Peebles Hospital, the court heard.

Williams was arrested the following day.

During a previous court appearance, the offender explained to Senior Magistrate Richards that he attacked Hewlett because Hewlett started to ‘hyperventilate’ in a threatening manner during their conversation on the day in question.

“I honestly thought he was going to do me something [and] so I protected myself,” Williams told the court.