Court defers sentence of Musician

An Accra circuit Court on Thursday deferred sentence of one Gregory Blake Ellary who was said to have in his possession a revolver pistol with five live ammunition and an empty shell.

Gregory pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing firearms and was convicted on his own plea. However the court adjourned the case to September 7 for sentence.

He was also charged for threat of death, but he pleaded not guilty to the charge and is to reappear on the next adjourned date for trial.

Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Kweku Bempah told the court that the complainant, Maxwell Odame is a Mechanic residing at Amasaman, while the convict is a Musician and lives at Kokrobite.

He said about a month ago, Gregory bought a BMW Motor bike from the complainant’s master, by name Malik Abed. Two weeks later he noticed a mechanical fault on the engine and did not hesitate to send it back to the seller for repairs.

The prosecution said there was an agreement that the seller would repair the engine and share the cost with Gregory.

DSP Bempah told the court that on August 24, the seller called the convict that he repaired the engine.

On August 25, when the convict went to collect the motor bike, Malik asked him to bring GH? 500.00 being half the cost of repair, to which he agreed and decided to test the motor bike.

He said in view of this Malik asked the complainant to sit behind him for the test. Gregory took the complainant to North Kaneshie and stopped along the road and told him to run for his dear life or else he would shoot him.

According to the prosecution, the complainant did not take it serious and to his surprise Gregory pulled out a foreign revolver pistol loaded with five rounds of ammunition, corked it, pointed it at him and attempted to run away with the bike.

He told the court that the complainant defied all of the threats and started struggling with him over the bike which attracted a witness to the scene.

DSP Bempah said after the witness had listened to both parties, he escorted both of them together with the gun to the Darkuman Police Station, where the complainant made a report to the police.

He said Gregory was searched and detained for investigations. The police then disengaged the gun by firing the bullet stocked in its chamber.