BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A young man of Sandy Point who was charged with Burglary was acquitted yesterday, September 23rd by a 12-member jury who rendered a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Ourtic Gillard a.k.a. Otis Gillard was charged with the September 12, 2007, offence in which the prosecution alleged that he broke into the home of Evette Bryan-Gumbs of Bourkes Village, Sandy Point and stole a number of items.
The items which were to the value of EC$1,038.00 , included nine boxer shorts, two packs of white socks, three packs of t-shirts and two Motorola cell phones.
The prosecution called six witnesses, including the virtual complainant Bryan-Gumbs who was the first to take the witness stand and was examined by Rhonda Nisbett-Browne who led the prosecution under the guidance of her senior, the Director of Public Prosecution, Paulina Hendrickson. The accused was not represented by counsel.
Bryan-Gumbs said that on September 11, she and her husband and two grandchildren were on their porch and around 8 p.m. she saw a suspicious looking person about 100 yards away from her home.
She said that she called the Sandy Point Police station and made a report.
Bryan-Gumbs said she then went inside and went to bed.
At around 3:30 a.m. she heard her daughter shouting and left her room.
She said she ran into the accused and said, “Boy what you doing in my home? Who tell you come in?”
She said she also saw the accused run out of the kitchen door taking her grandson’s school bag. She then called the Sandy Point Police station and reported the incident, after which she made a search of her home and discovered that a number of items were missing.
Bryan-Gumbs told the court that she observed that the screen for the kitchen window was dislodged and that a stool was standing under the window on the outside of the house.
During cross-examination, Gillard asked Bryan-Gumbs what influenced her to come to court to tell lies on him.
He also asked her if she saw him in her house and if she was sure it was him to which she responded ‘yes’.
He further enquired of the virtual complainant if she remembered giving the police a statement in which she said a hood was over the person’s face to which she responded that she did not say that.
The daughter of Bryan-Gumbs, Cleo Gumbs also gave evidence in court and said that she heard a scrabbling at the foot of her bed which awakened her and when she reached to turn on the light she saw the accused.
Gumbs said she screamed for her father and said, “Harper! Harper! Harper!, Ourtic in my room”.
Gillard chose to take the witness stand in his own defence and related that on the morning in question he was traveling to New Guinea to pick up a bedstead for his grandmother.
He said he awoke after 4 a.m. and decided to get the bedstead for his grandmother with whom he lives.
During his closing address to the court Gillard said that if Bryan-Gumbs felt threatened when she saw someone near her home on the said night why would she not have made sure that her home was tightly secured.
“What am I going to do with 12 year-old stuff?”
The jury deliberated for about three hours from 1 p.m. and returned a not guilty verdict around 4:30 p.m.
Although Gillard has been vindicated of the charge, he remains in prison for a Burglary charge on which he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in 2009. Gillard is expected to face trial again later in these assizes to answer to a charge of robbery which he allegedly committed in October 2007.
At the opening of the September Assizes, Gillard pleaded not guilty to the charge.
