Last night, we told you the legal troubles of 33-year-old Ramiro De La Rosa. He's the father from Duck Run 2 in the Cayo District who is staring down a 3-year prison sentence. As we told you, he took an ill-advised decision to plead guilty to a gun charge in the hopes that he could get his scared wife back home with their 2 young children.
As we told you, police conducted a raid early last Friday. The cops were looking for guns and drugs, and they ended up finding his father's gun in the attic of their home. Ramiro's family tells us that the licensed weapon belonged to his father who recently died from COVID.
But because Ramiro and his wife did not personally own a gun license for this weapon, they were arrested and charged.
His wife told us yesterday that he had nowhere to turn to for help, and so, he desperately asked for advice from the cops and from a Justice of the Peace who was a family friend. They told him to plead guilty, which could lead the court would withdraw the charge against his wife and release him on bail.
But the magistrate handed him a sentence of 3 years in jail. Since then, residents of the Cayo District have been trying to get him a state pardon, and they even started to post video testimonials on Facebook on his behalf along with the hashtag, Justice For Ramiro.
Today, when we caught up with Police Commissioner Chester Williams, we asked about the matter, and here's what he had to say:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I was made aware of the matter after he had pleaded guilty and was already in prison. It is a rather unfortunate situation. The truth of the matter is that if I were made aware of it before him going to court, considering the explanation or the facts that have come out since, something else could have been done as opposed to charging him and taking him before a court. But the fact that he had gone to court and plead guilty and the court has imposed a jail sentence that is now out of the hands of the police. There is nothing that the police can do at this time. I have advised those persons who have reached out to me on the matter to see how the young man can get an attorney and perhaps the attorney can appeal the sentence that the court has imposed because it is a situation where he pled guilty and so the only thing he can appeal is the sentence. And I would want to think that any court of appellate jurisdiction, taking into consideration the new facts that arisen would surely reverse that custodial sentence."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"I know the law is the law, but should the arresting officers have had more understanding seeing that it wasn't his weapon, it was his father's weapon, he just didn't know."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Perhaps, yes, the officer could have use his discretion, but again, discretion is not absolute. And so I cannot fault the officer for doing his work. He did his job. Yes, I wish that in the circumstances that there was some degree of discretion exercise, but that was not the case and I am not going to hold it against the police officer in question, no."
We understand that the family has been exploring its legal options in the hopes of finding an attorney to intercede on his behalf.
