PHILIPSBURG–The Joint Court of Justice on Wednesday suspended the hearings of two men convicted to lengthy prison sentences by the Court of First Instance. The appeal hearings were postponed until May 24 awaiting additional investigations by Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI).
The lower Court found it legally and convincingly proven that the two men had been involved in a large number of armed supermarket robberies.
Orlando T. Grey was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment on June 8, 2017. The Court of First Instance found it legally and convincingly proven that he had committed 11 armed robberies at Chinese supermarkets and restaurants between July 27 and October 18, 2016. The maximum punishment for armed robberies is 20 years.
Grey was found guilty of theft with violence and threats, and of possession of illegal firearms.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty. “I am innocent. I am a hardworking man. I never committed any robbery,” he said last year.
The Prosecutor’s Office is holding Grey as one of two armed and masked robbers involved in no fewer than 29 robberies committed in the third quarter of 2016, bundled together in the so-called Onyx investigation. The Prosecutor had also called for a 12-year prison term.
Co-defendant Kendy Pierre was sentenced in November 2017 to nine years for having committed 11 armed supermarket robberies and for possession of an illegal firearm.
Pierre also denied the charges. Both defendants are currently detained in Curaçao. Both were among the Pointe Blanche prison inmates who were transferred to prisons abroad in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. They were heard via a video-link with Curaçao on Wednesday.
In December last year, the Joint Court decided to reopen the investigations in these cases for additional investigations into a sound fragment on video footage which should be compared with a fragment on which Grey’s voice can be heard.
The investigation is to be carried out by an NFI expert on voice recognition. Besides this, the Court also decided to hear the police officer who drafted the report as a witness.
Attorney Sjamira Roseburg pleaded with the Appeals Court to lift or suspend Grey’s detention. She pointed out that her client feels “unsafe and insecure” while detained in Curaçao, where he is virtually on his own as his family cannot afford to visit him frequently.
The Solicitor-General opposed suspension and said a transfer to St. Maarten was “unnecessary.”
He said the transfer of inmates to Curaçao and other locations within the Kingdom was necessary to maintain order in the Pointe Blanche prison. He added that the transfer was planned for a six-month period “in principle,” which would most likely be extended by another six months.
The Joint Court decided to plan another pro-forma hearing for May 24. Until then, Grey should remain behind bars, the Court stated.
The Court also said the defendants were not to be relocated to St. Maarten. However, their trial will be taking place here with the two defendants present.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/75340-supermarket-robbery-appeals-suspended
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