Fleeing cabbie gets nine months for killing biker
Published:Friday | March 5, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle,
Staff Reporter
A taxi driver who drove his motor car in a dangerous manner to escape from the police and while doing so crashed into a motorcyle, killing the rider, was on Monday sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.
Ewart Stephenson, 25, of Bartons, St Catherine, had pleaded guilty last month in the Clarendon Circuit Court.
Supreme Court judge Almarie Sinclair-Haynes told Stephenson that despite the plea from attorney-at-law Hugh Thompson for a non-custodial sentence, "the court cannot condone that sort of behaviour".
She said Stephenson had committed a serious offence and should use the short sentence to reflect on the tragedy. The judge explained that the shortness of his sentence was linked to the fact that he had been in custody for more than a year.
Crown Counsel Sanchia Burrell, in outlining the facts of the case, said that on February 23, 2009, Stephenson and other men were in a motor car allegedly transporting marijuana from St Elizabeth to St Catherine. Stephenson was the driver and the police signalled him to stop during a spot check at Porus, Manchester, but he disobeyed.
When he reached Four Paths, Clarendon, the police again signalled him to stop but he ignored the signal. The police gave chase and Stephenson began driving in a dangerous manner in his bid to escape. The motor car collided with a motorcyle which was travelling in front of it.
Daniel Dyer was hit off the motorcycle and died shortly after. The passengers in the motor car fled. The police searched the motor car and found a large garbage bag of marijuana.
The police conducted investigations into the matter and Stephenson was subsequently arrested and charged by Corporal Llewellyn Wynter.