Dec. 4, 2002 – Wade "Yardie" Gumbs was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison with no chance for parole, with an additional 15 years added to the sentence for possession of an unlicensed firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
The sentence was imposed immediately after a jury convicted Gumbs of first-degree murder in the shooting death in Savan of Rudolph Fleming last December. The trial lasted two days.
Attorney General Iver Stridiron called the Source late Wednesday evening to say, "We got a first-degree murder conviction against Yardee Gumbs."
Gumbs has been described by law-enforcement officials as one of St. Thomas's most notorious criminals.
Stridiron credited a witness, a woman who was in a beauty salon nearby on the day of the shooting, with being a major force in bringing about the conviction. "That's what I call a portrait in courage," he said. The woman and her son, who have both been threatened, are in a witness protection program.
Stridiron said it is important for the community to realize it is people's willingness to come forward and testify against criminals that will ultimately stem the tide of the territory's crime.
In handing down the sentence on Wednesday, Territorial Court Judge Brenda Hollar said there was no point in delaying the sentencing, as life imprisonment without parole is the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. She added the 15 years for gun possession on top of the life sentence. Ironically, she told the court, the mandatory sentence for possession of an unlicensed firearm in the commission of a violent crime was changed from five years to 15 years on Dec. 29, 2001, the day Fleming was gunned down.
Stridiron and Police Commissioner Franz Christian will be holding a press conference at 10 a.m. Thursday to discuss the conviction and other issues related to crime in the territory.
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