PHILIPSBURG--A man suspected of armed robbery, threatening and illegal firearm possession may be sent to prison to four years and six months, the prosecutor stated in his closing speech on Wednesday.
The prosecution, which considered all charges proven, recommended that the defendant be submitted to Parole Board supervision and treatment at Mental Health Foundation (MHF) during a three-year probation period.
An examining psychologist stated in a report that defendant F.J.C. (28), who was described as being not of high intelligence, should not be held fully accountable for his acts.
The suspect, who is currently detained in the Pointe Blanche prison, told the Court on Wednesday that “weed” is keeping his mind stable and that he is currently being “needled” by MHF, and that he wanted to go home.
C.’s defence lawyers pleaded for acquittal on the charges that he had robbed a gas-station attendant last year and had threatened his barber and wife.
Both stated that firearm possession could be proven, for which they called on the judge to impose a prison sentence equal to the time spent in pre-trial detention, which is a little over nine months.
The judge said that from the case file it emerges that the suspect seems to be a “lost soul,” after he was held in pre-trial detention in the prison in Guadeloupe for a crime he had not committed.
He was released after the judge learned that C. had been in the Netherlands when the alleged crimes were committed.
- said his unlawful detention had “messed up” his life and had made him lose his job. His sister, who was present at the hearing, told the judge that her brother’s detention on the French island had made him another man. “Since then, he is no longer the man I knew as my brother,” she said.
The prosecutor considered the late-night robbery of a female gas-station attendant proven, but the suspect dismissed the attendant’s statement. “That’s no evidence, that’s an accusation,” he told the court.
In mentioning that five armed robberies had been committed in the past six days, the prosecutor said that crimes such as these merit hefty prison sentences.
In stating that no witnesses were heard and that the victims had not been confronted with her client’s photograph, attorney Safira Ibrahim said there was insufficient convincing evidence that her client had threatened the barber couple.
“Up to this moment my client still denies any involvement in the Star Mart robbery,” Ibrahim said in claiming that also on this charge there was insufficient proof against her client.
The judge informed the defendant that he would take two weeks to consider all aspects in his case, and that he would give his decision on February 26.
