PHILIPSBURG–The Court of First Instance sentenced Darius E.R. Arrindell (22) to four years for having committed armed robbery at Gold Star Jewellers on Front Street on August 17, 2017. The defendant, who had vehemently denied the allegations, learned his fate Wednesday, December 27, 2017.
The jewellery store was robbed by an armed man wearing striped pants and a hoody. He made away with jewels with an estimated value of US $2,500, with $699 from the cash registry and $200 in the storeowner’s personal money.
Arrindell was arrested near the store shortly after the robbery. He claimed he had found the jewels and the money in a blue bag in an alley. He even asked a police officer to keep the bag safe.
Arrindell, who said he was on leave from his studies in Canada, denied he was the man identified by the storeowner as the culprit. “I am not the person in the photographs. I cannot use my left arm and the person in the pictures can,” he told the Judge during the December 8, 2017, hearing.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office the defendant matched perfectly the description provided by the storeowner. The Prosecutor dismissed the defendant’s claim that he had found the bag as being a “fable.”
Attorney Zylena Bary had called for her client’s full acquittal. She said no DNA evidence had been found of her client’s presence at the store and no photos of her client, who is a first offender, were shown to the storeowner.
The Judge found Arrindell guilty as charged and convicted him of stealing 49 pairs of earrings with a total value of approximately $2,500 and taking $699, NAf. 181 and 23.70 euros in cash. He was also found guilty of possession of an illegal firearm, a Smith & Wesson .177 calibre pistol.
The Court found it legally and convincingly proven that Arrindell was the man who had robbed the jewellery store during which he had pointed a firearm at the storeowner, shouting: “Take the gold out. Fast. Give me the gold. Give me the money. Give me the coins, euros, guilder. Give me your personal money.”
The Court found the case proven, as prior to the robbery the Front Street merchant had taken a photograph of a suspicious person who walked past the store a couple of times with a blue bag in his hands. The storeowner shared the photograph with other Front Street merchants via WhatsApp.
The description of the suspect’s features matched video-camera images of the robbery taken in the store and the photo taken by the “watchful entrepreneur,” the Judge said.
The suspect was arrested 10 minutes after the robbery. He had a blue handbag with a firearm and a grey sweater with a hood in his hands.
The Judge dismissed as “unbelievable” the defendant’s statement that he had found the bag in an alley. The Court also considered that the defence had not provided any medical evidence proving that the defendant’s left hand was paralysed and could not be used at all.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/72331-gold-star-jewellers-robber-sent-to-prison-for-4-years
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