Appeals court also acquits man of attempted manslaughter on arrest team

PHILIPSBURG – The Common Court of Justice confirmed the verdict the Court in First Instance issued in June 2016 against Calvin Beresford Green, whereby the defendant was acquitted of attempted manslaughter on an arrest team; he was sentence though to 24 months, with 6 months suspended and 3 years of probation for firearm and marijuana possession.

The solicitor-general demanded, 6 years of imprisonment with deduction of time already served during the appeal hearing on February 1.

Green lives in Cay Bay where, in the early morning hours of June 30, 2015, members of the arrest team broke down the front door of his house, based on authorization from the Judge of Instruction. Because he thought that he was going to be robbed, Green fired a gun into the floor in his bedroom. The arrest team figured that the shot was aimed at them.

Green told investigators after his arrest that he had been robbed a week earlier by a number of men who pretended to be police officers. He had bought a gun to protect himself.

When the arrest team broke down his front door, Green was sleeping. When he heard the noise, he fired the shot to scare the people who had entered his house. He said that he had not heard any announcement from the police, because his bedroom is located at the back of the house. Green said that he never had the intention to shoot at the police.

The court ruled that the defendant’s explanation for what happened was not implausible. There is insufficient evidence that Green targeted the front door of his house with his shot and that he wanted to bring about the death or the serious ill-treatment of the members of the arrest team.

The appeals court found no grounds to overrule the first Instance verdict. “From the evidence the court can only deduce that the suspect fired twice with a gun from his bedroom, while the arrest team was in the process of entering his house through the front door that leads into the living room that borders on the bedroom.”

Like the lower court, the appeals court was unable to determine the direction in which the shots had been fired.