Higher punishment for attempt to rob Prime Distributors
PHILIPSBURG – Two men who aborted an attempt to rob Prime Distributors in Cole Bay on December 8, 2016, received heavier prison sentences in the Court in First Instance on Wednesday than the public prosecutor demanded at the trial on May 2.
The court sentenced Sheldon Lionel Herbert to 24 months of imprisonment and Ricardo Frederick Alexander York to 18 months. The prosecution’s demand was 18 and 12 months respectively.
Herbert, 38, received a heavier punishment because the court found also proven that he had a Ruger 380 Auto pistol in his possession; at his home officers found 113 gram of marijuana and several goods – like fruit juices and wine – that he had stolen from a supermarket after Hurricane Irma. The only charge against York, 33, was the attempted robbery at Prime Distributors.
At the trial, the public prosecutor asked the court to acquit both men of the attempted robbery because they had aborted their mission voluntarily. The court came to a different conclusion.
Article 46b of the penal code says making preparations to commit a crime or attempting to commit a crime does not exist if a crime is not completed due to circumstances that depend on the will of the perpetrator.
This is what happened on the day in question: A security guard saw two masked men climb over a wall and move into the direction of the store. A witness who also saw the men, told investigators that one of them carried a gun, the other one a hammer. But when the men spotted the security guard they got cold feet and ran away.
The court reasoned that the defendants had the intention to rob Prime Distributors or to extort money from the company. “When the suspects see the security guard they decide to turn around and run away. It is not plausible that the defendants ran away due to a circumstance that depends on their will; it remained an attempted robbery exclusively under the influence of an external stimulus, namely the fact that the security guard had spotted them,” the court ruling states.
The ruling notes that Herbert committed four different crimes – possession of a firearm and marijuana, theft and an attempt to rob or to extort.
Herbert was found guilty of looting: “In the chaotic times after the hurricane many people have looted and many have become the victims of it. The suspect has participated in this by stealing several packs of juice, bottles of wine and other items. Instead of helping to build up, the suspect has chosen to contribute to the ever growing chaos.”
Herbert has a previous conviction for firearm possession to his name.
In June 2013 Ricardo York was sentenced on appeal to 6 years of imprisonment for an armed robbery at the Yang Yang supermarket, firearm possession and a burglary. York had appealed a verdict of the Court in First Instance; the lower court acquitted him in December 2012 of the robbery and gun possession and sentenced him to 15 months; York appealed the ruling and ended up with a much higher sentence.
In September 2016 he was released from prison; three months later, with the attempted robbery at Prime Distributors, he was involved in criminal activities again.
