YouTuber Jayda Cheaves, Gregory Wright fined $1.6 million on gun charges
AMERICAN SOCIAL media personality Jayda Cheaves and Gregory Wright, a member of her entourage, were fined $1.6 million after they pleaded guilty on gun-related charges in the Western Regional Gun Court in Montego Bay, St James, yesterday.
Twenty-four-year-old Cheaves, and Wright, also 24, were whisked away by members of Cheaves’ entourage into a grey minibus after they exited the courthouse following their in-camera court hearing.
Cheaves and Wright were before the court to answer to charges of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, following their arrest on Monday, at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, where they were to board a private jet to leave the island. Two 9mm pistols and 15 rounds of ammunition were found in their luggage.
Following their guilty pleas on Wednesday, they were each ordered to pay fines of $500,000 or 12 months of imprisonment on the firearm charges, and $300,000 or 12 months of imprisonment for the ammunition charges.
Cheaves was represented by attorneyat-law Martyn Thomas, while attorney Michael Hemmings represented Wright. Neither of the two were required to surrender their fingerprints to the police.
FINE PAID IN FULL
In a brief media interview following Cheaves and Wright’s departure, Hemmings said their fines were fully paid and the two would be leaving the island later in the day.
“They (Cheaves and Wright) were fined this morning in the Western Regional Gun Court for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, and they are free to go. Because Gun Court matters are held in-camera, there is not much else I can say about it, and I do not have my clients’ permission to say anything further,” said Hemmings.
“They have paid the fines, so they are free to go. They are leaving the island today,” he added.
In the case of Cheaves and Wright, while the weapons found in their possession were legally obtained in the United States and they had permits to carry them there, they had no permission to take them into Jamaica, which meant having them here is classified as illegal.
In a post made to her Instagram Stories, Cheaves called the incident “an honest mistake”. “Thank you for all your concerns. We are good and out of court! It was an honest mistake and believe me when I say I learned my lesson. I had a ball out here,” said Cheaves, calling the trip her “best birthday ever”.
Cheaves and her entourage arrived in Jamaica last week to celebrate her 24th birthday. The entrepreneur and social media influencer is the mother of a son with American rapper Lil Baby. She recently launched her own clothing merchandise website, www.waydaminmerch.com, and has 5.9 million followers on Instagram, 433,750 followers on Twitter, and more than 330,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel.