PHILIPSBURG--On Wednesday, the judge in the Court of First Instance sentenced three suspects to four years, six months of which were suspended, on three years’ probation. They were found guilty of kidnapping and mistreating a man under threat of firearms in Pelican Key on January 14, 2020.
Suspects George Antoine Lee Hodge (49), Rudolf Alberto Magloire (47) and Andrew Rodolph Joseph (38) were all found guilty of having kidnapped their victim, who was driving his 17-year-old son to school, around 6:30am on Billy Folly Road, close to their home.
The victim, who was reportedly involved in the drug trade, was attacked by two masked men, mistreated, injured and held captive while his captors drove him around the island. His hands were tied and his eyes and mouth covered with duct tape.
In French St. Martin, the kidnappers tried to extort him out of unknown quantities of money or cocaine but failed, as the victim claimed he had neither.
All three suspects denied the allegations but admitted there had been a “situation” going on for quite some time between the victim and their friend W.W., also known as “Snake”, about a debt of 15,000 euros.
W., who was not standing trial on Wednesday, was the only suspect who confessed to the allegations. The other three suspects were traced through his phone.
The three said they had tagged along to help their friend but denied their involvement in kidnapping or any other crime mentioned in the indictments. They also denied they had been driving around the island for more than three hours, and said the incident took no more than a few minutes.
The injuries sustained by the defendant were not the result of mistreatment but because he was injured as he fell on the street. “He was not hurt by anybody. No violence was used against him,” Hodge claimed during the hearing.
The victim told the police he was confronted by four armed men who pushed him into a car, driving him around for a few hours while asking him for money or drugs. He was dropped off at his house at 9:45pm that same day.
Dismissing the suspects’ statements as “incredible” and saying that the victim was afraid he was going to lose his life in the ordeal, the prosecutor demanded five-year prison sentences.
“For profit, the victim was dragged out of his vehicle, mistreated and driven around while he was defenceless. Even after the kidnapping, he was still threatened. Fortunately, he has not lost his life,” the prosecutor said.
According to attorney-at-law Sjamira Roseburg, the victim was involved in the drug trade. The lawyer said this case should be considered an incident between two rivalling criminal groupings but said there were insufficient leads to speak of kidnapping and extortion, only of a “conversation by appointment”.
The lawyer pleaded for her clients’ acquittal and said she did not understand the five-year demand. “We are not dealing with a model citizen here, but with someone who was arrested while in possession of a firearm and cocaine,” she said of the victim.
By contrast, her clients have behaved themselves like model citizens in recent years, she claimed. “They all have jobs and have appeared here as free men in the courtroom.”
The trio spent some two months in pre-trial detention but were released in April 2020 due to lack of cell space in the Pointe Blanche prison.
After a brief recess, the judge announced that all charges were legally and convincingly proven, based on the victim’s detailed statements and the statement of his son, who had witnessed the violent kidnapping and the long-lasting abduction.
The judge also found extortion proven. “Even with a real – drug-related – debt, you cannot commit extortion,” he told the defendants.
