BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa – The Second Judicial Circuit Court in Upper Buchanan has sentenced the ringleader of a group of armed robbers to 30 years in prison.

Jacob Teah, 30, was arrested at the Owensgrove police checkpoint on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 by a joint security team that transferred him to Buchanan for investigation. At the time of the arrest, he had a pistol and three rounds on him while riding on a stolen motorcycle.

Teah was sent to the Upper Buchanan prison compound on Wednesday, September 12, having been tried and convicted of armed robbery.

“The grand jurors of the county of Grand Bassa [in the] Republic of Liberia, upon their oaths, do hereby find more probably than not that defendants Jacob Teah, and others to be identified, did do and commit the crime armed robbery – felony of the first degree,” the ruling stated.

Court documents noted that on Monday, July 30, Teah and a group of men armed with pistols and cutlasses entered into several homes in Joe Gray’s Town. During the robberies, they shot Solomon Kongbagar in his left knee and made away with a motorbike and properties valued at US$483 plus US$2,035 in cash.

The court documents also accused the defendant of placing another victim, Peter Glay, under gunpoint and robbing him of US$1,484, in addition to properties worth US$466.

The defendant pleaded guilty and was sent to the Upper Buchanan prison compound.

The stolen motorcycle has since been turned over to Solomon Kongbagar while the single barrel pistol gun and the three shots have been turned over to Grand Bassa’s county attorney, Cllr. Patto B. Jarba.

Teah’s arrest and subsequent conviction come after a surge in armed robberies created concern among Grand Bassa residents, leading to calls for the police to amplify their efforts to apprehend criminals.

Featured photo by Zeze Ballah.