PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance on Wednesday sentenced a 26-year-old man to seven years for shooting a man in his car outside a grocery store in Middle Region on February 10.
During the July 20 hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office had called for a nine-year prison sentence in what it considered a case of attempted manslaughter and of illegal firearm possession.
The incident left the victim nursing a bullet wound to his back. A bullet hole left the rear window of his Hyundai Getz shattered.
The victim and shooter were involved in an altercation about the shooter’s girlfriend, who also was the victim’s ex-girlfriend.
The victim went into a coma for three days. Surgery was required as he suffered internal bleeding in the chest area. He remained in hospital for two weeks.
Franky Gomez did not deny that he had fired a shot at the car. “I admit to being involved in the shooting…It is correct that I walked over to the car. D. [the victim – Ed.] was in the car. I then walked away and came back. D. was starting the car to drive away and I shot in the direction of the car. I only fired once. I know that D. was badly hurt,” Gomez told the Police in April.
He denied the shooting had originated in jealousy. He told the Court shooting at the man had been a mistake, as he had erroneously taken him for the man who had tried to shoot him in Dutch Quarter in January.
The Judge, however, did not buy this story because it was insufficiently substantiated and lacked credibility.
Statements that he would have been under the influence of ecstasy pills and had panicked due to an excess of adrenaline met the same fate.
In 2010, Gomez was sentenced to seven years for armed robbery with violence. He was sent home for early release in April 2015, but two months later his conditional dismissal was revoked as he did not comply with the conditions attached to the release.
