Gocking gets 20 years' jail time for cocaine in juice tins

EIGHTEEN years after he was arrested for trafficking 21.74 kilogrammes of cocaine found in orange juice tins, Stephen Gocking has been sentenced to 20 years’ in jail.

Those 20 years will not be spent doing hard labour as the judge who sentenced him said because he is not of good health – he suffers from hypertension, arthritis, gout, anxiety and bouts of depression.

From the 20 years, some 73 days will be deducted representing the time he has spent awaiting trial and sentencing.

On July 31, Gocking was convicted of being in possession of, for the purpose of trafficking, a total of 206 orange juice tins which all contained a quantity of cocaine mixed with acetone.

He was held by Cpl Michael Charles of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU), who executed a search warrant at a house on Franklyn Road off Union Road, Four Roads, Diego Martin. When weighed.

Gocking was on Thursday sentenced by Justice Maria Wilson at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain.

Wilson imposed sentences on the two counts separately, ordering him to serve six years on count one and the 20 years on count two, but because the sentences are to run together, he will only serve the latter minus the time he has spent awaiting trial and sentencing.

In arriving at her sentences, Wilson said she considered, as aggravating factors, the quantity of drugs, the legislative intent of Parliament for such offences, and the premeditated, planned and deliberate nature of the acts committed by Gocking as evidenced by the packaging of the drugs.

She also considered his age - he is 54-, the fact he had no previous convictions or further infractions, his health and that he would have had charges hanging over his head for 18 years to be mitigating factors in his favour which led to her shaving off some jail time from her starting point sentences of eight years and 25 years.

The judge also pointed out that his ailments could be treated in prison and he had good prospects of being able to reintegrate in society once he serves his time.

Prosecutors Joy Balkaran and Shabana Shah presented evidence from police officers who raided Gocking’s apartment at Franklyn Road off Union Road, Four Roads, Diego Martin, where they found 45 orange juice tins containing the cocaine, and a solid block of cocaine, weighing 25 grammes, in the kitchen and 161 orange juice tins, which also contained cocaine and acetone, weighing 89 kilogrammes, found in the trunk of his wife’s SUV which he was using at that time. The cocaine was brought to court and tendered into evidence at the trial which took place in July.

At the trial, Gocking testified that the apartment at Franklyn Road was his half-uncle Marlon’s and he was there “for a romantic interlude” with a young woman who was not his wife.

He said he went there to meet a young lady for an hour and made arrangements with Marlon to use the apartment for an hour.

The woman, he admitted, was not his wife and he took her to the apartment because he “certainly could not take her to my apartment where my wife lived.”

Gocking lived with his wife and mother at Apt 303, Building C, Powder Magazine, Diego Martin. He still lives there.

“I went there (the Franklyn Road apartment) purely for a romantic interlude,” he said.

He said if everything had worked out, he would have left Marlon’s apartment after the hour and gone his way. “Time was of essence,” he added.

His “romantic interlude” with the woman only lasted as long as it took for him to remove his shirt as the police stormed the apartment five minutes after he got there. He first thought his wife had sent people for him.

He denied all the claims made by the police who arrested him and who said they found the cocaine in the apartment and his wife’s car.

Gocking is a cousin of brothers Clint and Troy Gocking who were fined $10 million for the illegal importation of two armoured Lincoln Navigator sports utility vehicles (SUVs) which were impounded by the State. He is also the nephew of Marlon Gocking, who was gunned down on Frederick Street, Port of Spain, in 2008.

Attorney Shaun Morris also represented Gocking.