Sisters Tiffany and Shakira Bailey.
Two sisters, who pleaded guilty today to breaking into their aunt’s home and stealing, will be sentenced next month.
Tiffany Nikita Bailey, 24, and Shakira Krystal Bailey, 26, both of #8 Grazettes Court, Grazettes, St Michael, admitted entering Shanell Smith’s house on May 14 this year and stealing a Bible, a knife, scissors and a cellular phone.
According to Sergeant Theodore McClean, the women went to their aunt’s house around
9 a.m. She was surprised to see them because they did not normally visit, but she opened the door and invited them in.
When they asked Smith for some money, she told them she had none. However, while Smith was standing talking to her nieces, four men barged into the apartment.
When Smith asked what was going on, the men pushed her on to the bedroom floor. She struggled with one of them but was held down by the sisters.
The apartment was searched and the items taken. They all left the scene together, the prosecutor said.
During their interview with police, the Bailey sisters admitted going to their aunt’s house. The other accomplices are still being sought, Sergeant McClean explained.
Oliver Thomas, attorney for the accused women, told the court that according to his instructions, it was only one man who entered the house and not four.
Additionally, he said, Smith gave the women food items that day and they later returned the Bible. However, the prosecutor could not confirm whether the Bible or any of the other stolen items had been returned.
Against this backdrop, acting Magistrate Ellwood Watts decided that the matter ought to be adjourned rather than dealt with right away. He felt that before he sentenced the women, it was “material” to find out from the complainant whether they had in fact been four men or one, since four would further aggravate the offence.
When the question of bail arose, Sergeant McClean said the offences were serious, the women had been “on the run” from police, and society needed to be protected from them.
Station Sergeant Irvin Kellman added that the prosecution was “very strongly” objecting to bail for the women, since both were currently on bail from another court.
When they were last scheduled to appear in that court on July 6 this year, their co-accused showed up “but these two did not”, the lawman explained.
He further informed the court that a warrant of arrest had already been issued for Tiffany.
Considering their guilty plea, their pending matters and their non-attendance at court,
Watts remanded the sisters to HMP Dodds until August 7.
Meanwhile, Tiffany is to appear in the District ‘B’ Magistrates’ Court on August 4 to face a charge of robbing Jason Thomas of a car and $500 on June 5.
Two days later, she is to go before the District ‘E’ Magistrates’ Court on a charge of unlawfully wounding Chantel Toppin with intent to maim, disfigure or disable her or to do her serious bodily harm.
That offence is alleged to have occurred on February 12 this year.