Robbers 11th hour admission

(CNS): Two men who were due to stand trial on Monday for the robbery of a Sprint Courier van driver at gun point had an eleventh hour change of heart and have now admitted their part in the daylight heist. Manuel Carter (33) and Brandon Liberal (27) had denied charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and robbery in connection with the hold-up, which took place in the car park of a local insurance firm in October 2012. Although the men waited until the day of trial and until after a jury had been selected, in the end, after legal discussions with attorneys and before the judge, they made a decision to come clean and pleaded guilty to the robbery.

Carter, from West Bay, who was arrested shortly after the crime and Liberal, who was the last of four men to be charged in the crime last December, entered theirrevised guilty pleas before Justice Charles Quin on Tuesday, after which he dismissed the jury.

The robbery took place at around ten o’clock in the morning on 4 October 2012 outside the offices of BritCay on Eastern Avenue, in George Town, when one man threatened the courier van driver with a semi-automatic pistol and then made off with around $9,000 in cash in a white Mitsubishi. However, in a targeted RCIPS operation less than a week after the daylight hold-up Carter was arrested along with John Cohen-Ebanks (51), also from West Bay, who made immediate confessions to the police and a loaded firearm was recovered.

A month later police also arrested a West Bay teenager, who was charged with the robbery but he is still awaiting a psychiatric report to gauge his fitness to plead. His case was also adjourned on Tuesday and he will be before the court again on 25 April.

Following the guilty pleas of Carter and Liberal Tuesday the court has now set a sentencing hearing for 10 April, when Cohen-Ebanks is expected to join his co-defendants. All three men are each facing at least seven years in jail as a result of the mandatory firearms minimum sentence.