Court affirms 13-year sentence for robbery

One of two men charged with robbing a Holiday Foods Ltd salesman/driver at Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain, lost his appeal yesterday and had a total of a 13-year sentence affirmed by the Court of Appeal. However, since Keshon Roberts’ sentences are to run concurrently, he will serve only five years which the court ordered to start yesterday. Attorney Keith Scotland asked the Court of Appeal yesterday to rule that trial judge, Justice Prakash Moosai, erred in law when he failed to abort a trial during which one of two accused persons had absconded near the close of the prosecution’s case.

Alternatively, he submitted that the judge failed to give the jury an adequate direction on how they should deal with the fact that one accused had absconded. He concluded that the effect of the disappearance could have had a prejudicial effect on the jury toward the remaining accused. Alvin Harry and Keshon Roberts were charged with robbing Perry Brown of money and security guard Jankey Manickram of a firearm and ammunition on February 11, 1999, at Millington Avenue in Sea Lots. Harry absconded, leaving Roberts to face the jury during the trial in June 2002. The appeal was heard before Justice Wendell Kangaloo, Justice Stanley John and Justice Ivor Archie.

Responding to Scotland’s contention yesterday was special prosecutor Devan Rampersad, a former Assistant DPP. Rampersad contended that the judge had a discretion in the matter which, in this case, was applied appropriately, with respect to all the circumstances of the case, and having heard arguments from all counsel in the matter. Rampersad also argued that the judge, in his summation, made it absolutely clear to the jury that Harry’s disappearance was not an admission of guilt. Scotland had also raised another ground suggesting that the evidence of Manickram alone could not be relied on for the jury to find that the item taken from him was a firearm which was loaded with six rounds of ammunition. But this point was forcefully knocked down by their lordships and Rampersad was not called on to respond to it. The court dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions and sentences. Roberts was sentenced on June 28, 2002 to five years for robbery, four years for possession of a firearm and four years for ammunition.