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Did "Horse" Sell Out "Hooligan"?
posted (May 7, 2012)
On May of 2011, 7News told you about the 39 year-old Elvis "Hooligan" Bevans and Jermaine "Horse" Garnett who the Gang Suppression Unit arrested. During those two busts, they confiscated a 9mm handgun with 19 live rounds, a Remington 700 rifle with scope, and 65 live rounds of .225 of ammunition.

As a result, they ended up charging only Bevans with firearms offenses.

Well Tonight, Bevans is spending the first night of a 5-year sentence in prison after he was convicted on those charges in the Magistrate Court this afternoon.

In his trial, 2 officers from the Gang Suppression Unit testified that on May 22, 2011, at around 11:45 a.m., they were on Central American Boulevard when they spotted a Ford Van, which Bevans was driving. According to them, he was acting suspiciously.

They followed Bevans until he got to an alley on the corner of Neal Pen and Kraal Roads. When Bevans got out of the vehicle they searched him and found a chrome and black 9mm handgun with an extended magazine containing 19 live rounds. The firearm was tucked in his pants waist.

As a result, they charged him with keeping an unlicensed firearm, keeping unlicensed ammunition, and keeping a prohibited material.

In his defense, Bevans told the court that on that day, he received a call from a friend who told him to pick up the firearm from an open lot at the corner of Caesar Ridge Road and Central American Boulevard, and he was to take it to the alley, and leave it there for the police to find.

He said that when the police asked him when they searched him, he declared the firearm in his possession, and instead of waiting for him to place it at the decided spot, they arrested and charged him.

He called Jermaine "Horse" Garnett as a witness who testified that the GSU arrested him on that day, and according to Garnett, the officers attempted to plant 2 plastic bags on him. Garnett said that he assumed that the bags contained drugs.

Garnett continued that he made a deal with the officers to hand in a gun in exchange for no charges being brought against him for the plastic bags. He said that the GSU agreed and he made a phone call to his friend, Bevans, whom he knew very well.

Garnett then gave Bevans the location of the gun and where he was to place it, but the GSU reportedly did not hold up their end of the bargain and went to arrest Bevans.

Bevan's attorney, Phillip Palacio, then made a submission in his client's defense saying that what the GSU did was a form of entrapment. Palacio told the court Bevans did what he did with the compliance from the police, who didn't respect the agreement.

Bevans also called another witness to the stand who testified that Garnett made another arrangement and had him hand over the rifle and a bottle of ammunition. This witness told the court that the GSU didn't charge him for that second gun.

At the end of the defense, Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith found him guilty. She said quote, "I belive that Garnett set up his friend, Bevans". End Quote.

She then informed the court that the entrapment defense did not apply because if there was any agreement, it was between Garnett and the police.

Chief Magistrate Smith also said that Bevans knew from the moment he picked up the gun, that it was an unlicensed firearm, and that it was illegal.

For each of the 3 charges, she sentenced him to 5 years imprisonment, but they are to run concurrently, so Bevans will only spend 5 years.

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