PHILIPSBURG–The man who assaulted a female bartender outside Lotus nightclub in Cole Bay and severely cut the woman’s face with a broken glass on May 27, 2018, and who was shot outside St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) that same day, was sentenced to six months on Wednesday.
The Prosecutor’s Office had called for six months suspended, on two years’ probation and 120 hours of community service for the 30-year-old defendant Stephen Jeramie Cranstoun. His lawyer had called for her client’s acquittal on the assault and battery charges.
The bartender, who was not present at the trial, received medical treatment for three deep gashes to her left cheekbone which, according to the Court, had resulted in permanent and “unsightly” scars. Therefore, the Judge qualified this crime as inflicting severe bodily injury.
The defendant sustained a cut to his hand in the incident and went to SMMC for treatment. At the hospital he was confronted by some of the victim’s friends and was shot during an altercation. The shooting incident was never solved and it is still unknown who fired the gunshot that severely injured the defendant.
During the August 28 hearing in this case, attorney-at-law Safira Ibrahim pleaded with the Court for a “judicial pardon” and not to impose a sentence, because in her eyes the shooting meant that her client had already been sufficiently punished.
After the shooting and initial medical assistance at SMMC, Cranstoun was flown out to the Dominican Republic for emergency surgery. The former construction worker is no longer fit for work and has to undergo medical treatment to his nervous system in Colombia.
The Court acknowledged that the suspect had become the victim in the shooting, but said this does not mean that he could no longer be punished. Regardless of the consequences of the shooting incident for the suspect, he had committed a serious offence in inflicting “very nasty” injuries on his victim.
“It cannot be that in this situation there is no longer room for criminal law because the defendant has already been punished by bystanders or by persons involved,” the Judge stated in the verdict.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/90809-six-months-for-assault-on-nightclub-bartender
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