PHILIPSBURG–The Joint Court of Justice on Wednesday sentenced Anthonie J. Horst to 16 months in jail, eight months of which were suspended, on three years’ probation, for the possession of 2,904 ecstasy pills.
On September 7, 2016, the Court of First Instance had sentenced the 32-year-old man to two years. During the appeal hearing the Solicitor General had asked the Court of Appeals to confirm the verdict.
The Joint Court of Justice found it legally and convincingly proven that the pills that were found in a car and during a house search on July 2, 2016, belonged to the defendant.
According to Horst, he had found the pills out at sea approximately three weeks prior to his arrest. He confessed to using ecstasy pills.
“It is correct that I am a user. I like to party and that’s when I use,” he told the Judge in the Court of First Instance. He denied, however, that he was selling the drugs.
Pleadings by Horst’s lawyer Sjamira Roseburg that mistakes were made during her client’s arrest and the house search, and that the confiscated pills were not properly tested on the presence of MDMA, did not lead to the Court declaring the Prosecutor’s case against her client inadmissible.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/63865-joint-court-convicts-man-of-ecstasy-pill-possession
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