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29th
July 2010
Crafty vendor
found guilty of house breaking
COURT NEWS
Ashley Alexander
Max
Serve, of Palmiste Soufriere, defended himself
for the offence of burglary, at the Criminal
Division of the High Court, on Friday 22nd July
2010. The street vendor displayed his ability
to express himself coherently; in voicing his
alibi reflecting some knowledge of the Judicial
System, but his amusing ingenuity was not enough.
According to the defendant, who served as his
own counsel, on Tuesday 2nd June 2009,after
his routine collection of coconuts and guavas
at the Fond Cacoa river, which normally served
as a medium for his artistical display, he was
approached by a group of armed officers. “Someone
said you just come out of the people house,”
said one police constable.
He was subsequently arrested and later taken
to the scene where the alleged incident occured.
The defendant told the court that he was forced
at gunpoint to climb a flight of steps, then
he was shot in the leg for no reason and he
fell to the ground where he was shot again.
During his cross examination of key witnesses,
he questioned the owner of the residence, Marie
Nelson, a teacher of the Soufriere Infant school,
who said she received a call informing her of
a house breaking at her premises. |
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Mrs Nelson stated
that upon arrival, she noticed broken windows,
her home was in a disarray, and she also saw
a knife near a pool of blood.
Another eye witness, Corporal Charles, painted
a totally different picture of what transpired.
He stated that he found the defendant in the
house, where he ordered him to freeze, but
the defendant chose to attack him with a knife
instead; therefore he was shot in the leg.
The defendant also questioned the officer
about the veracity of his testimony, ”Did
you not just swear by the Almighty God to
say the truth and nothing but the truth, so
why are you lying?”
Later on the prosecution presented the argument
accusing the defendant of not going to pick
coconuts and guavas, but that his sole purpose
was to break into the house that morning.
“You broke the windows to get in, Corporal
Charles caught you and you tried to attack
him with a knife and he shot you.” The
defendant’s closing remarks were “With
due respect to the court, I would like justice
in this trial to be fair and not to be judged
by my past conviction. For now if given a
chance in life I would like to become a role
model in my community. However, he was found
guilty of the offence of burglary but he maintained
that he was innocent of the charge. Sentence
will be pronounced today.
Discuss
Story
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