By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
MR. JUSTICE Howard Cooke did not mince words yesterday when he sentenced 30-year-old Steve McCalla, of Greater Portmore, St. Catherine to nine years imprisonment at hard labour for "blackmailing" Beverly Lopez, president of the Jamaica Exporters Association.
The judge said what McCalla did was "despicable." He referred to the photographs which McCalla had planned to use to blackmail Mrs. Lopez and remarked "those pictures bring revulsion, utmost revulsion to any well-thinking person in the society."
McCalla went on trial in the Home Circuit Court last Wednesday for six offences which included the alleged drugging of Mrs. Lopez on November 1, last year.
The antecedent which was read in court yesterday revealed that McCalla went to England in 1996 and was held at the Gatwick Airport, London with cocaine. He was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to four years imprisonment. He was deported to Jamaica on September 20, last year.
On Tuesday the jury retired for two hours and found him guilty of demanding $400,000 with menace from Mrs. Lopez. He was acquitted of the other charges.
The judge described the jury's verdict as "curious" but said he would not comment on it since he had told them they were the sole judges of the facts.
Evidence was given at the trial that a man with a British accent lured Mrs. Lopez to the Hilton Kingston Hotel on the pretext that he was a British journalist and wanted to interview her. When she went to the hotel on November 1, last year, McCalla brandished a knife and he and a woman overpowered her and forced her to drink a sedative. McCalla demanded money from her. She was tied up and left in the hotel room.
The seven-member jury found that McCalla was not guilty of the other charges which included administering a stupefying drug with intent to enable himself to indecently assault Mrs. Lopez.
In sentencing McCalla, the judge said that it was a very unusual case and was the first case of that nature. He said the case produced a rather curious verdict but he would not comment on it.
"In the language of the indictment you were found guilty of demanding of the complainant with menace, $400,000. In common parlance that is blackmail. What was the nature of the blackmail? It is that you would circulate two photographs in which the complainant was represented as being involved in sexual impropriety.
"You have seen the pictures and when I showed them to your counsel, you could see he was visibly shocked in his tracks," the judge said.
The judge said he would not give a description of the photographs because he had declared the trial to be in camera. He reminded McCalla of his threat which was "if you don't pay me $400,000 these photographs will be circulated."
McCalla graduated from Meadowbrook High School with six CXC subjects and also attended UTech. The judge, in commenting on his education, said that McCalla was fairly educated and his grasp of the concepts and mode of expressions were to be admired. The judge told McCalla that unfortunately he turned his talents in the wrong direction.
After McCalla was convicted, he asked attorney-at-law Earl Wright to make a plea in mitigation. Mr. Wright asked the court to be lenient with McCalla. He said that McCalla was hungry and toiled in his effort to seek employment.
"That is not reason to blackmail somebody," the judge remarked and directed senior court clerk, Winston Daley, to show Mr. Wright two photographs which were tendered in evidence.
In sentencing McCalla, the judge told him that the maximum sentence was 15 years. He told him that he would not take into account the offence he had committed abroad. The judge took into account the fact that McCalla had been in custody since his arrest.
When the trial began last week Wednesday, McCalla told the court that he did not want attorney-at-law Lloyd McFarlane to represent him. He said he would defend himself and the judge consented to his request. Mr. McFarlane was representing McCalla on a legal aid assignment.
McCalla gave an unsworn statement from the dock on Monday, denying that he committed the offences.
