PHILIPSBURG – Collin Anthony J. is looking at a 10-year prison sentence for three armed robberies during which he allegedly also robbed his victims of their freedom. The Court in First Instance will pronounce the verdict against the 30-year old defendant on March 15. The defendant attended the trial in Philipsburg on Wednesday morning via a video link from the prison in Zutphen, the Netherlands, where he is detained since three months. While J. ranted and raved during an earlier court hearing on January 24, this time he was composed; at the end of the trial he offered his apologies…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – The court in first Instance sentenced drugs mule Orlando Cyril Overman on Wednesday to a 24-month prison term, with 14 months suspended and 3 years of probation. The public prosecutor had demanded 24 months with 12 months suspended for the 43-year old defendant’s attempt to smuggle 1,050 grams of cocaine into St. Maarten in bolitas. Overman was picked out at the airport on December 20 when he got off a Caribbean Airways plane that arrived at the Princess Juliana International Airport from Trinidad. Overman contested the weight of the cocaine found in the bolitas. “That cannot be correct.…
Dear Editor, In 2002 my wife and I purchased Air Lekkerbek, the plane on the Pondfill that was one of the major touristic attractions on the island and frequented by many residents. The business was bought as a retirement investment so that we could be self-sufficient when reaching the pensionable age. This opportunity was violently ripped away from us by former Ministers of VROMI Maurice Lake and Claret Connor. In 2010 the government decided to create ten parcels for long lease along the stretch of the ring road where Air Lekkerbek is located. When we were informed of such we…
Dear Editor, In a January 2018 article of The Diplomat they describe that,”as relations between the United States and Latin America appears to be deteriorating under the Trump administration, China is actively embracing Latin American and Caribbean countries.” In fact the significance of Chinese relations in the region is such that there was much ado about a diplomatic faux pas when the Trinidad Prime Minister appeared to misunderstand that no invitation was extended to a meeting in China last November. As we mark the start of the Chinese New Year, we must recognize Prime Minister William Marlin; as international diplomat…
PHILIPSBURG – “I have no opinion on his decision to give the land because it is his decision,” said former VROMI-Minister MP Claret Connor, currently the number 6 candidate on the list of the United Democrats at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon about the controversial issuance of land in long lease by former VROMI-Minister Christophe Emmanuel. Connor hosted the press conference to counter allegations by Emmanuel and former Prime Minister Williams Marlin against a decision he took in 2015 as minister of VROMI to issue 10,000 square meter of land on the ring road to the Chamber of Commerce.…
PHILIPSBURG – United St. Maarten party MP Silvio Matser has to go to jail for committing election fraud in 2014. The Court in First Instance sentenced Matser on appeal on Wednesday to 8 months of imprisonment with 2 months suspended and 2 years of probation. The court also revoked Matser’s passive voting right – the right to be elected to parliament – for five years. The court sentenced prison director Edward Rohan to 160 days of imprisonment with 80 days suspended and 2 years of probation for providing a list of Pointe Blanche inmates who were eligible to vote in…
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…
PHILPSBURG – The Court in First Instance set the date for the next pro-forma hearing in the so-called Pompeii-investigation on Wednesday at June 27. The investigation focuses on the exploitation and illegal employment of 21 prostitutes at the El Capitan and Le Petit Chateau brothels between January 2014 and November 2016. The four suspects in this case are Etienne ‘Toochie’ M. (66), Dulcea F. (56), Louella Marianella R. (51) and Ramphsis R. (48). The court decided, at the request of attorney Eldon Sulvaran to handle the criminal trial and the process to seize close to $5 million from the defendants…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance sentenced a 17-year old boy on Wednesday to 40 hours of conditional community service and imposed 1 year of probation. The boy had fooled around with a pellet gun on Poinsettia Road on November 25 of last year; one of the pellets hit one of his friends in his arm. “That’s assault, using a weapon,” the public prosecutor said. But a social worker from the Court of Guardianship described the incident as ‘mischief.’ The boy’s parents were present in court and the boy read a letter he had written to his victim. It…
PHILIPSBURG – The Common Court of Justice sentenced two men on Wednesday on appeal for fencing a large number of items in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Titus Leandro Maynard, 29, was sentenced to 180 days with 28 days suspended; Remi Leon Maynard, 57, was sentenced to a conditional 6-week jail term with 3 years of probation and 180 hours of community service. Between September 5 and September 21, the day the defendants were arrested, they had a large number of items n their possession that obviously stemmed from post-hurricane looting. Police found handbags, curtains, electronics, a laptop, a flatscreen…
