40 year-old Newellyn Nicholas, a vendor of Roaring Creek, will spend 38 consecutive years of imprisonment after he was sentenced yesterday in the courtroom of Justice Troadio Gonzalez in the western session of the Supreme Court.
He was tried and convicted of 3 counts of carnal knowledge and one count of indecent assault against an 8 year-old child on Friday afternoon.
The 8 year-old testified in camera that twice in 2009 and once in 2010, Nicholas had sexual intercourse with her. She also testified that Nicholas touched her privates on a separate occasion in 2010.
Nicholas, who was unrepresented, testified to the court in his defense that he was innocent the charges brought against him, and that the child's mother forced her to fabricate the entire story out of malice.
A jury of 9 didn't believe him, and less than an hour after they went into deliberation, they returned with 4 guilty verdicts on all charges.
In court yesterday, Nicholas begged for leniency on his behalf, but he failed to produce any character witnesses.
Justice Gonzalez sentenced him to three 12-year terms on the carnal knowledge charges, and 1 term of 2 years on the indecent assault charge; all of these terms are to run consecutively.
Senior Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez prosecuted this case.
