Derek Achong
A High Court Judge has deferred the sentencing of a 35-year-old man who admitted to raping and murdering a 19-year-old teenager, sexually assaulting and shooting her older cousin, and kidnapping a taxi driver during a crime spree in 2008.
Keston “Chucky” Allen pleaded guilty to ten criminal offences under a plea agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in July and was scheduled to be sentenced by Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds on Monday.
However, when the case was called Justice Ramsumair-Hinds indicated that she needed further submissions on Allen being placed on the sexual offenders’ registry and being ordered to report to police periodically upon his eventual release.
“I don’t want to make an order without hearing from your attorneys because it would be mandatory if you don’t apply for an exemption,” she said.
Allen was alleged to have committed the offences on October 19, 2008.
Allen and two accomplices, a man and a woman, pretended to be passengers as they boarded the taxi driver’s car after a party in St Augustine.
After approximately 15 minutes, Allen and his accomplices allegedly forced the driver to stop next to two women who were walking on the road.
Allen and his accomplices robbed the women of their cellphones and forced them to enter the taxi.
They then forced the driver to drive to an abandoned house in Mt Lambert.
At the house, the teenager was raped, and her 22-year-old cousin, who had her period, was sexually assaulted.
Allen and his accomplices then forced one of the women to perform oral sex on the taxi driver. As they were leaving the house, the taxi driver managed to run away.
Allen and his accomplices attempted to find him but were unsuccessful and left in his car.
However, they were forced to abandon the car in Champ Fleurs as they were unable to properly drive the vehicle as it had a manual transmission.
Allen and his accomplices shot both women several times before running away.
When police eventually found the car, the teenager had already succumbed to her injuries. Her older cousin was taken to hospital and survived.
Allen was arrested and charged after he was identified by her and the taxi driver.
Allen was initially charged with over a dozen offences including felony murder, false imprisonment, robbery with aggravation, grievous sexual assault, rape, and larceny of a car. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Allen agreed to plead guilty to ten of the charges while the others were discontinued.
The DPP’s Office and Allen’s lawyers agreed that Justice Ramsumair-Hinds should use her discretion to decide on the appropriate sentence for felony murder.
However, recommended that she begin with a starting point sentence of 22 years for kidnapping and 25 years for rape before applying a one-third discount for his guilty pleas and deducting the time he spent on remand awaiting trial.
When Allen pleaded guilty to the offences, earlier this year, prosecutor Danielle Thompson presented victim impact statements from the teenager’s cousin, her mother and the taxi driver.
In her statement, the teenager’s mother said that she was traumatised by the murder of her only daughter and had to give away her daughter’s belongings as she did not want reminders of her at the family’s home.
She said that before her death, her daughter worked as a hairdresser and was saving to fulfil her dream of attending university.
“I know nothing I can do can bring her back but I just want justice for her as all I have of her is her memory,” she said.
The taxi driver also claimed to have been traumatised as he said that he stopped working for over a year.
Allen is being represented by Michelle Gonzales and Michael Modeste, of the Public Defenders’ Department.
He is expected to be sentenced next Wednesday.