Teen guilty of robbery

(CNS): An 18-year-old boy, who was only 16 when he committed the crime, has been found guilty of robbing Mostyns Esso in Bodden Town last year but has been acquitted of attempting to murder a police officer. Following a judge alone trial that began almost one year ago, Elmer Wright finally discovered his fate on Thursday afternoon when the visiting judge who presided over his trial without a jury delivered his verdict. the teenager was also convicted of possession and use of an unlicensed firearm as well as possession of ammunition relating to the gas station heist and a shot fired at police officers who gave chase as the men fled the scene of the crime. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

Justice Smith stated that the prosecution had proved beyond all reasonable doubt that Wright was involved in the robbery and that he had been in possession of the weapon that had been fired as well as the ammunition and that he had fired that shotgun. The judge said he rejected the defendant’s claims that he had been with another man earlier that evening who had fired a weapon and had swapped jackets with him. During his evidence Wright had claimed that the gun belonged to Harryton Rivers who was shot and killed by a home owner during an attempted burglary one month after the Mostyns robbery.

The judge rejected his story and said the accused’s own evidence was contrived and incredible. “In short I reject his evidence in the main,” he said adding that he had clearly lied and not for any innocent reason.

“The prosecution evidence has shown beyond doubt that he was one of the robbers at the gas station,” the judge said as he pointed to the list of evidence against the defendant.
Justice Smith found that the crown had also established beyond doubt that Wright had fired the gun but he did not think it had proved that Wright intended to murder the police officer when he fired the weapon at the patrol car. The judge said the fact that the defendant had fired towards such a large target and had missed the vehicle completely created reasonable doubt and he could not be sure the defendant was attempting to kill anyone, as he acquitted him of that count.

Wright was one of three robbers who held up the Bodden Town gas station in June last year but he is the only one to have been arrested and charged. The three armed men threatened a female attendant in the store and one butted a customer with one of the rifles before they fled in a white car with over $1000 in cash. As they made their escape a routine police patrol car which was in the area spotted the robbers leaving the gas station and went in pursuit.

The two officers in the police patrol car who were unarmed followed the robbers’ getaway vehicle at high speed into Northward Road, where the suspects abandoned the car. Three men ran from the vehicle on foot but not before one of them had loaded his shotgun and fired at the police car.

The defendant was charged with robbery and attempted murder as the man who fired the shot at the police. When he was apprehended in Beach Bay road as he emerged from some bushes he was found to have over $300 in cash, including more than 30 single dollar bills, shotgun cartridges and gunshot residue on his clothes and hands. Police also found the shotgun close by to where Wright was arrested a short time later.

Wright's trial began in December 2010 but was adjourned before the crown closed its case in order for defence expert witnesses to examine the prosecution evidence. Despite being schedule to return in January, the case did not in the end resume until July, almost six months after it started.

The trial was completed by the end of July but as a result of work load and other issues the visiting judge was not able to deliver the verdict until this week when he returned to the jurisdiction from Jamaica.

The teenager, who is now facing a lengthy term of imprisonment and scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow morning, is still the only person police have charged in connection with the robbery, in which the shotgun and the car used in the crime were both stolen.