By: St. Clair Sazam Hull
Nevispages.com
(CHARLESTOWN NEVIS)- The District ‘C’ Magistrate Court in Charlestown, Nevis, resumed its sitting on Wednesday, September 3, 2014 before Magistrate, His Honour, Raynald Benjamin.
A number of persons who were scheduled to appear before the court were not present to answer the charges brought against them.
The first matter before the Court was that of Kyle Hanley, a resident of New Castle Village. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of using threatening language, against Richard Thomas, on the evening of Saturday, July 26, 2014 in the vicinity of Pinney’s Beach Hotel.
According to Thomas, he was walking down the road with a girl when Kyle appeared and inflicted some slaps to the girl and shoved her into the vehicle he was driving. Thomas stated that after Hanley finished slapping the female, Hanley walked over to him with a brick and started using offensive language and threatened to shoot him. Thomas said he was terrified and fled the scene immediately and filed a complaint at the Charlestown Police Station. When asked by Prosecutor Stephen Hector if Hanley’s behaviour had caught him off-guard, Thomas replied and said, “Yes I wasn’t expecting him to behave like that, it was not normal behaviour”.
In his statement from the witness stand, police officer, Constable Bobbs noted that he was on duty on the night of the incident when Thomas entered the Charlestown Police Station. According to Bobbs, after he heard what had transpired from the complainant, he made his way to the scene in search of Hanley but it was futile. He stated that on July 31, 2014 he saw Hanley close to the fire station and told him about a report that was filed against him. The officer said he also cautioned the defendant.
In his defense, Hanley noted that he was in St. Kitts having a jolly good time at the Marriott Hotel when his girlfriend sent him a text message. The defendant indicated that his girlfriend had been unfaithful to him and they were trying to resolve their problems. Hanley said he caught the Sea Bridge and journeyed over to Nevis and upon arrival he called his girlfriend and asked where she was and she responded and said in the area of Sea Spawn Guest House.
The defendant claimed that when he arrived where his girlfriend was located, he saw the complainant sitting on the wall with a bottle in his hand and smoking what appeared to be a ‘joint’. He said that he questioned his girlfriend as to why she was hanging with a person like Richard who is of no value or asset to her. He noted upon hearing those words Thomas flicked a knife and threatened to stab him. Hanley continued, “He told me he was going to stab me and I said to him if he stab me he had better kill me or else he in big trouble”. Hanley indicated that after the exchange of words he departed with his girlfriend that probably left Thomas in a sorrowful state.
After listening to all of the facts, Hanley was found not guilty but was warned by the Magistrate not to appear before the court again for the next eighteen months.
The second matter to be heard was that of Cluberth Hendrickson, of Cotton Ground. Hendrickson pleaded guilty for wounding with intent.
The Prosecution stated that on the night of July 4, 2014 at a bar in Cotton Ground, Hendrickson got into an argument with Godwin Browne and struck him with a bottle to the forehead. After the incident Browne made a report to the Cotton Ground Police Station and Hendrickson was apprehended.
In his defense, Hendrickson noted that Brown was intoxicated and was saying insulting things to him. He claimed that Browne told him he saw his daughter on a phone having sex and she appeared to know what she was doing. Browne told the court that he and Hendrickson were drinking partners and from time to time, they would make jokes with each other but on that occasion, Browne took the joke too far and Hendrickson took the joke with utmost seriousness.
Hendrickson was fined four hundred and fifty dollars ($450.00) to be paid in two weeks or serve one (1) month in prison.