By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN was sentenced yesterday to a fraction of the 20 years he faced for a burglary that occurred nearly three years ago.

Jermaine Knowles, 41, made his reappearance before Justice Indra Charles after a jury convicted him of a late night home invasion that occurred at a woman’s home on Fire Trail Road on October 20, 2012.

Knowles’ lawyer, Terrel Butler, had asked the court to consider that a weapon was not used in the commission of the offence and that the victim in the matter was not physically harmed.

Prosecutor Edmund Turner acknowledged this fact, but noted that Knowles did have previous convictions of a similar nature and deserved no less than seven years imprisonment.

The judge, considering the submissions of Crown and defence counsel, found that the maximum penalty was not warranted even though any sentence less than that was being “very lenient.”

Justice Charles told the convicted man that someone with his history faced the maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. However, she imposed an eight-year sentence, which takes effect from yesterday’s proceedings.

The term was reduced by the 30 months he had spent on remand awaiting trial.

When asked for his reaction to the outcome, Mr Turner said the sentence was appropriate in the circumstances.

Mr Butler, too, expressed similar sentiments that the lack of violence in this incident “was a mitigating factor”.