PHILIPSBURG--The prosecutor demanded an eight-year prison sentence for a 36-year-old man suspected of involvement in the late-night shooting in Simpson Bay early Sunday morning, November 18, 2018.
Another suspect in the shootout, Jarvill Omarrie Richardson (36), was sentenced to eight years. During the court hearing of August 21, the prosecutor had called for a prison sentence of 14 years.
The evidence against both suspects was primarily based on the footage of video-surveillance cameras, a compilation of which, made by the Prosecutor’s Office, was shown in the courtroom during both hearings.
Suspect E.W.D.L. did not deny that he had been visiting a nightclub in the area, but denied that he had taken part in the shooting.
Three persons were heard as witnesses on Wednesday, among whom were a nightclub security guard and a friend of the defendant. All witnesses told the judge that they had seen L. in a nightclub in the vicinity of the shooting, but all three testified that they had not seen any of the shooters and could not confirm that L. had been among them, or that he had been outside the club during the shooting incident.
In the shooting, two duos fired gunshots at each other across Simpson Bay Road, while the area was crowded with visitors to the entertainment area.
Based on the camera footage, the police and the Prosecutor’s Office are holding L. for one of the shooters. The prosecutor did not consider murder proven, but called on the Court to convict the defendant of manslaughter and of possession of an illegal firearm, although the weapon in question was never found.
“It is incomprehensible that he has fired with so much ease and without any apparent cause. Innocent people could have been hit and he caused a lot of panic,” the prosecutor said in her closing speech.
The prosecutor pointed out that in November 2018 the defendant had been a free man for only a short while after he had been released from prison where he had spent one year for firearm possession.
Suspect L. claimed he had no part in the shooting. “I do not want to be convicted of something I did not do,” he told the judge.
Attorney-at-law Shaira Bommel pleaded for her client’s acquittal, as she found no legal and convincing evidence that her client was one of the shooters. She said the case against her client was only based on the statements of two detectives. They had claimed that they had recognized L. on the video-images, but Bommel stated that no value should be attached to the alleged recognition.
Bommel pleaded for her client’s full acquittal and filed a request to lift her client’s pre-trial detention. She said there was too much room for doubt, as the case was built on “guesswork, speculations and assumptions.”
The judge will give his decision December 23.
