BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE January 2010 Criminal Assizes is scheduled to begin today.
With an approximate month-long break between the last and this assizes, the Director of Public Prosecution Paulina Hendrickson, her team and defence counsels are expected in court today for the start of the packed session.
Just about 56 cases are listed for hearing during this assizes, the bulk of which was traversed from the September 2009 Criminal Assizes which ended in December of last year.
SKNVibes understands that of the 56 matters, 14 are being listed for the first time with the remaining 42 or 75 percent of cases being previously listed.
Traversed cases include those of Wendell Prentice who is charged with the offence of “rape”, Elroy Williams who is charged with the offence of “murder”, Artic Gillard who is charged with “burglary”, Malvey Drew and Lester Tross who are jointly charged with “murder”, Kethline Skelton who is charged with “malicious damage”, William Gift who is charged with “buggery”, Newrish Nital who is charged with “fraud” and Trevaughn Elliott who is charged with “indecent assault”.
New cases include those of Nelson Challenger, Shenroy Francis, Jomi Rawlins, Glenroy Smithen and Moses Gardner who are co-charged with the murder of Gregory Anthony Zakers, Simeon Govia who is charged with “wounding with intent”, Kenrick Thomas who is charged with “robbery”, Babatunde Dami Lola Alonge who is charged with “false pretence” and Cecil Charles who is charged with “unlawful carnal knowledge”.
At today’s sitting, the accused persons in the “new” matters will be arraigned and hearing dates set. However, the accused individuals whose cases have appeared on previous assizes would have been previously arraigned, therefore that process is not likely to be repeated. Trial dates, however, will be set.
The previous assizes proved somewhat challenging when the Criminal Court was obligated to temporarily and intermittently step aside to give way to constitutional matters which had to be dealt with during that period.
As St. Kitts’ resident judge, His Lordship Justice Francis Belle explained at the end of the last assizes, this is one of the principle reasons for the non-disposal of other cases. He named the fact that there is just one resident judge in St. Kitts – who has to deal with both civil and criminal matters – as another.
It is expected that more cases will be disposed of during this assizes.
