PHILIPSBURG--A man who was sitting a ten-year prison sentence for manslaughter had his conviction overturned by three judges of the Joint Court of Justice on Tuesday.
Danzell Richardson (35) claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot and killed 27-year-old Angelo Aragon at a Simpson Bay car wash on August 17, 2022, saying the deceased and the twin business owners had attacked first and hit him in the head with a metal object.
The Court of First Instance rejected this plea in its verdict of February 2024, handing down a 10-year sentence for manslaughter and gun possession. This was a year more than what the prosecutor had demanded, but in line with the 10 to 12 years recommended in the court’s sentencing guidelines.
Although the lower court judge believed it was “plausible” that there was an argument in the car wash and that Richardson was hit at some point, she did not consider it proven that he was placed in a situation in which he had to defend himself. She also cited the multiple times that Richardson changed his story during the course of the investigation.
On Tuesday, the panel of three appellate judges reversed this decision, ruling that there were sufficient indications that Richardson had been the victim of a “sudden and unlawful assault”. The verdict also quashed the lower court’s order for Richardson to pay roughly US $12,500 in funeral costs to Aragon’s family.
The Joint Court pointed out that DNA tests revealed that the copious amounts of blood found at the car wash had belonged to Richardson, and not Aragon. There were also pictures of Richardson’s head injuries in the case file, and police officers had reported seeing blood on the twins’ bodies and clothing.
The twins told investigators that they were not there at the time of the shooting, but this turned out not to be true, the Joint Court said.
One of the twins called 911 shortly after the shooting and was heard saying to an unknown person in the background: “Yo, you move all the straps? Everything?”
The lower court did not attach much value to this statement, ruling that it could not be proven that the “straps” mentioned in the call were used against Richardson in the series of events that led up to the shooting.
However, the Joint Court ruled that this conversation did prove that other weapons were in the car wash at the time, and, which had to be removed before police arrived.
During last month’s appeal trial, the solicitor-general argued that Richardson could have tried to escape, and that his use of the .38-calibre revolver was disproportionate to the threat.
The Joint Court ruled on Tuesday that it could not be legally determined if self-defence was proportional or not, because the twins, as the only other two witnesses, have not “provided any insight into what happened” and have “tried to keep themselves out of the proceedings”. The court also considered it proven that one of the twins had stolen Richardson’s truck keys, which limited his options for running away.
Richardson told a slightly different story to the appellate judges during last month’s appeal trial, saying he drew the firearm in the struggle and shot Aragon in the chest from the front. Last year, Richardson told the lower court that he had momentarily slipped free from the three attackers and fired blindly behind him while running away.
The Joint Court still found Richardson guilty of illegal gun possession for the revolver and sentenced him to 26 months in prison.
Tuesday’s verdict was unsurprising, given that Richardson had been let out of prison about two weeks ago, an indication that the judges were leaning towards accepting his self-defence plea.
At the time of his release, Richardson had already spent roughly 2½ years behind bars, or more than what he received in Tuesday’s verdict.
Richardson attended Tuesday’s court session to hear the judges officially set him free. Next to him was defence lawyer Sjamira Roseburg, with another half-dozen family members in the public gallery.
