Armed robbers remain imprisoned in Curacao
PHLIPSBURG – The Common Court of Justice set May 24 as the date for another pro forma hearing in the appeals process against two men who have been convicted in the Court in First Instance for eleven armed robberies. Orlando Grey and Kendy Pierre, currently detained in Curacao, will hear that day when the appeals trial will take place.
Between July 27 2016 and October 18 2016 the defendants allegedly committed 29 armed robberies; the prosecution has charged them with eleven robberies, whereby they grabbed in total $8,210 from their victims.
The targets of these robberies were the Old Tree Peaking seafood Restaurant, the Wang Jiao supermarket, the Fresh Pond supermarket, the Wah Yun supermarket, the Well Luck supermarket, the Texaco Star Mart, the Quality Food supermarket, the Best Food supermarket, the Subway on the Walter Nisbeth Road and the Welcome supermarket.
Grey was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in June of last year. Pierre got a sentence of 9 years in November.
The court had reopened the investigation for further investigation. At the heart of the matter is a sound bite from video footage. A police officer claims to have recognized the voice of Grey on that recording. When the material was sent to the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) for a voice-comparison analysis, it appeared impossible to play back the sound. That technicality has in the meantime been resolved and the court is now awaiting the outcome of this process. According to the NFI, such an analysis takes up to three months.
The solicitor-general told the court that there is a strong possibility that the detention of Grey and Pierre in Curacao will be extended by another six months. The men were transferred to Curacao after Hurricane Irma in an attempt to maintain control over the situation at the Pointe Blanche prison.
Attorney Sjamira Roseburg asked the court to terminate or suspend her client Grey’s pretrial detention, but the solicitor-general objected and the court denied the request. The court also denied a request to transfer the defendants back to St. Maarten. “Under the current circumstances detention in Pointe Blanche is impossible,” the court ruled.
Photo caption: Bon Futuro prison (SDKK) in Curacao. Photo AntilliaansDagblad.com.
