By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterCECIL MEDDER, 43, a former supervisor of Guardsman Jamaica Limited has lost his appeal against his convictions of illegal possession of 22,000 rounds of ammunition.
On September 15, 2000 Mr. Justice David Pitter found him guilty of 29 counts of illegal possession of ammunition and sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment at hard labour.
He appealed and the court of Appeal upheld the convictions but reduced his prison sentence from 12 to 10 years.
Medder was in charge of the armoury at Guardsman at the time of his arrest. The Crown led evidence at his trial in the Gun Court, Kingston that between Apirl 4, 1995 and February 4, 1997, he used two expired booklets to purchase 22,000 rounds of ammunition from Arms and Ammo Ltd. Medder had the responsibility of purchasing ammunition for the company.
Police witnesses had testified that after the firearm booklets expired they were cancelled and the police kept the expired firearm booklets in their custody. However, investigations revealed that after the booklets were cancelled, Medder used the same booklets to purchase the ammunition. Medder and another man, David Beckett, were arrested in April 1997 after members of the Special Anti-Crime Task Force discovered 1,200 rounds of assorted ammunition at a premises on Tower Street, Kingston.
Following investigations Beckett, whom police identified as the occupant of the house, was arrested and charged by Deputy Superintendent Delroy Hewitt. Further investigations by Senior Superintendent Reggie Grant led to Medder's arrest.
It was alleged that Medder used Guardsman's firearm booklets to buy bullets from firearm dealers. The bullets were then sold to criminal elements.
Beckett pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Medder, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was tried and convicted.
Mr. Justice Pitter in sentencing Medder had said that "even the police system was subverted and the police must have something to do with the subversion."
The judge said that a Corporal of Police said he took the expired booklets from Medder "and he (Medder) later ended up with these booklets, was there some accomplice in the police force." The judge found that when Medder received the cartridges, he had received them illegally into his possession. The judge said that he drew the inference that the ammunition found its way into the wrong hands. The judge told Medder that only persons who had no licence would purchase the ammunition from him.
