The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
FRIDAY,
APRIL 07, 2017
VOLUME 111, No.14
www.thevincentian.com
EC$1.50
Defence attorney Grant Connell sought to highlight a number of inconsistencies in evidence presented by state witnesses.
by HAYDN HUGGINS THE DEFENCE is expected to call its own Firearms Expert in a major gun and ammunition trial at the Serious Offences Court. Attorney Grant Connell, representing Randy Shallow and his girlfriend Friekesha Douglas, both of Lowmans Leeward, informed the Court of their intention, after Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne overruled his no case submission on Monday. Connell indicated that he needed time to make the arrangement, and the matter was adjourned to April 24, when the defence is expected to open its case. Connell has also made a request for entries from the station diary and exhibit book, in relation to the matter.
Basis for charges
Senior Prosecutor Adolphus Delpleche pointed to a single question for the court, i.e. whether the exhibits were found at the defendants abode and in their presence.
Shallow and Douglas are charged jointly with eight counts of possession: a prohibited weapon, to wit, an SMG submachine gun, and having a component part of a prohibited weapon, to wit, a magazine of a AK47 rifle; and a .38 revolver, a glock pistol, 14 rounds of .40
ammunition,42 rounds of 9mm ammunition, one round of .38 ammunition, and one round of 7.62 ammunition, without licences issued under the Firearm Act. The prosecution’s case is based on the discovery of the above items, on a window ledge of a bedroom of an apartment on the lower floor of a house at Lowmans Bay, when a party of police officers executed a search warrant on January 18 this year. According to the evidence, the couple was renting the apartment from Daniel Johnson, who lived on the upper floor of the 2-storey building, which also had a storeroom on the lower floor, adjacent to where the couple was staying.
A case of inconsistencies When the
prosecution rested its case on Monday, Connell submitted that his clients could not have been in possession of the items, since three police officers — the arresting officer Constable Philbert Chambers, Corporal Kirt King and Constable Asursha Miller — had said in their evidence, that the guns, ammunition and magazines were found on a ledge located on the outside of a bedroom window of the apartment,
and that the burglar bars were fixed outside the window, which was in the storeroom, to which the landlord has access without having to pass through the defendants’ apartment. Connell argued that the officers gave different versions as to how the items were found, as to who were in the room when they were found, and whether the window was met open or not. Continued on Page 3.
(L-R): Randy Shallow and Friekesha Douglas had no case submissions on their behalf, overruled by the court.