Addict jailed for stealing jewellery to pay rent

Friday 01 May 2020

A 23-year-old man with a drug addiction has been sentenced to four years behind bars and will face deportation for a drunken assault on a stranger and stealing jewellery from a family member’s house to pay his rent at the homeless shelter.

Charged with grave and criminal assault, illegal entry and possession of a small amount of cannabis, Maximiano Gabriel Ramos appeared before the Royal Court by video link to be sentenced this week.

Represented by Advocate Alana Binnie, Ramos entered guilty pleas to all charges on an earlier occasion. 

Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, prosecuting, summarised the facts of the case for the Court. 

Pictured: Ramos was this week sentenced by Jersey's Royal Court.

Turning first to the assault, the Crown Advocate explained that the incident took place in the early hours of 28 September last year at Charing Cross and was captured on CCTV. 

The footage shows another unidentified man, brandishing “a temporary traffic pole”, approach Ramos and his companions near the Town Hall before he “strikes a bench and a lamppost with the pole” and then moves out of view of the CCTV camera. 

Later footage shows that the man re-enters the frame, “still holding the pole”.

The Crown’s summary continues to describe the CCTV footage: “[Ramos] removes his jacket as he approaches the victim. The victim continues to walk towards the defendant with the pole and then pauses, still holding the pole and bends his legs, adopting a crouched-like stance and gestures at the defendant as he continues to walk towards him. 

“The pair then scuffle over the pole, the victim using it at one point to push the defendant away from him. The defendant is then seen to remove the pole from the victim and the footage shows him striking the victim with the pole twice to his body as the victim continues to move towards the defendant.”

Later in the fray, the victim falls to the ground after attempting to “rugby tackle” Ramos and the defendant proceeds to punch him “approximately seven times, and then kicked and stamped on him approximately nine times to the body, whilst the victim was on the ground”.

The Court was told that, after viewing the CCTV footage, Ramos told Police that “he had been drunk and did not recall what had started the incident.”

He added that he had woken up the following day with “a sore foot and knuckles but he could not work out, at the time, what had caused this,” saying that “he would not have acted in the way he had on the CCTV had he been sober".

Pictured: The assault was captured on CCTV.

Regarding the illegal entry charge, the Court was told that, Ramos had called a family member, to check if she or her partner were going to be home. 

When she returned later that day, she went into her bedroom and “noticed that there were small headphones in a plastic casing on the bed which had not been there when she made the bed that morning.”

Thinking that this was “odd”, the woman then “checked her bedroom” and realised some items of jewellery and a bottle of lotion were missing. 

The missing items included her partner’s gold bracelet and crucifix necklace, a small golden bracelet belonging to her child and a bottle of Dior lotion.

She then “went into the kitchen... and she saw a footprint on the draining surface next to the sink” and “immediately thought the defendant had broken into her home and stolen the missing items by gaining entry through the kitchen window” which had been left open.

The Court heard that Ramos had gone to a jeweller to sell the jewellery items.

Some of the other missing items were seized from Ramos’s room at the Shelter, but the chain originally attached to the crucifix and the baby’s bracelet have not been recovered as it is believed that they were scrapped and sold to bullion dealers. 

During Police interview, Ramos told officers that on the day in question, he had been to see his employer, which was nearby to his family member’s house, in the hopes of getting an advance on his wages in order to pay his rent at the Shelter. 

When he was unable to get an advance, he said he called the family member to see if he could visit her and, upon finding out that no one was home, he went to the house and saw “that the kitchen window was open”. 

The Crown’s summary states: “He [Ramos] thought that there would be money in the house, so he climbed through the window with the intent of taking cash to pay his rent. The Defendant could not find any cash so he decided to take jewellery instead.

Pictured: Ramos told Police that he illegally entered the property with the intent of taking cash to pay his rent.

“[Ramos] further stated he then took the stolen items to a jewellers, whose name he could not recall. He stated that he had managed to sell the gold bracelet with the hearts for £203, which had been more money that he was expecting to receive. The Defendant paid his rent at the Shelter with this money and bought Subutex and Cannabis with the remainder of the money.”

The prosecutor said that Ramos was “remorseful” during his Police interview, “stating that he had a drug addiction that he could not control.” 

The case was heard by Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae, accompanied by Jurats Anthony Olsen Steven Austin-Vautier and Kim Averty.

Ultimately, the Court sentenced Ramos to four years in prison for the offences and made a recommendation that he should be deported after he has served his sentence.