Cabbie beaten for stealing goat

Cabbie beaten for stealing goat

A goat yesterday

A taxi driver who was beaten by an angry mob when a goat was found in the trunk of his motor car has been fined $70,000 or nine months’ imprisonment for larceny of the goat.
Cornell Francis, 28, of Fort William, Westmoreland, was convicted in the Whithorn Resident Magistrate’s Court, Westmoreland.
Barrington Holmes, a farmer, and owner of the goat, testified last week that on October 20, last year, while he was at Roaring River, Westmoreland, he received information which led him to go on a search for his 33 goats.
broken horn
He ended up at a river where he saw his black goat in the trunk of a motor car. He said he identified the goat by a broken horn. He said the goat was involved in a fight two months before he was stolen, and that was how his horn was broken.
Holmes said residents had stopped Francis when they saw the goat in the trunk of the motor car.
Constable Darroe Rowe said when he arrived on the scene, the accused Francis had several injuries all over his body.
Francis, in his defence, denied stealing the goat. He told the court that he had gone to the river to wash his motor car.
After Francis was found guilty, attorney-at-Law Michael Erskine begged Resident Magistrate Sheron Barnes not to send him to prison. Erskine said Francis had no previous conviction and had already been punished by the mob who attacked and injured him.
RM Barnes, in passing sentence ,said although she abhorred stealing, especially from hard working farmers, she would exercise some leniency and impose a fine.
Farmer Holmes informed the court that following a court order, the police returned the goat to him. He said the goat was consumed over the Christmas holidays last year.
source: http://jamaica-star.com/