Raymond Andres, who shot a burglar in self-defence, was sentenced to 10 years at the Old Bailey today.
A cannabis grower from Clapham who shot a burglar in self-defence was sentenced to 10 years in jail at the Old Bailey today.
Raymond Andres, 39, who was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday, denied murdering Isaiah Bovell, but acknowledged that he had inadvertently caused his death.
Judge Peter Thornton QC accepted that Andres had not intended to kill Mr Bovell, but dismissed that he had not bought the gun to protect his cannabis enterprise.
He said: “Sadly drug crime, including cannabis, often leads to gun crime.”
Mr Bovell, 21, was shot as he and two others tried to break in through the bedroom window of Andres’ ground floor flat in Plummer Road.
Commenting on the sentence, Mr Bovill’s cousin, Lucy Martindale, said: “I don’t feel nothing about it ‘cause no amount of time is gonna bring him back.”
Andres’ defence, Julian Hayes, described it as a “very sad, unusual case” and said his client had been acting out of desperation.
He said he had given an extreme response to a very extreme set of circumstances and hadn’t meant to hurt anyone, simply to deter the intruders.
Andres said: “I was hoping to scare whoever was outside, to scare him away. I didn’t think I would hit anyone. I feel terrible. I am devastated that I actually killed somebody.”
Upon investigation police uncovered a cannabis factory behind a false wall in Andres’ living room, which jurors heard would provide three harvests producing £36,000 worth of drugs a year.
They also found a 9mm handgun and one spent cartridge.
Zoe Johnson, prosecuting, told the judge: “This killing occurred against a background of a criminal enterprise – he had this factory in this flat.
“The primary reason why he had this firearm was the need to protect this criminal enterprise.”
Andres was also given five years for possession of a firearm and two years for cultivating cannabis, all to run concurrently.
