Williams and Matthew get 43 years sentence each
By Terresa McCall
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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Maluska Williams
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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FOR the next 18 years Maluska Williams and Wayne Matthew will be guests at Her Majesty’s Prison as penalty for committing felonious acts.
Both men were last Thursday convicted of “Possession of a firearm to aid in the commission of a Felony”, “Robbery” and “Wounding with Intent” offences which were committed against Army Corporal Joseph Bergan at about 12:00 p. m. on Friday, December 2, 2005 in Lodge Village.
Bergan, at the time of incident, was providing escort service for one of CEMACO’s delivery trucks.
After almost three hours of deliberations, a three/man/nine/woman jury emerged with the unanimous conviction that both men were guilty of the first offence but were divided 10/2 relative to the other two charges.
Williams and Matthew were also tried for attempting to murder Bergan, but the jury unanimously found that they were “not guilty” as charged.
Presiding judge, His Lordship Francis Belle, sentenced the men to 18 years each in prison on the count of “possession of a firearm to
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Wayne Matthew
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aid in the commission of a felony” and a further 18 years each for the offence of “robbery”.
For the offence of “wounding with intent”, both Williams and Matthew were each sentenced to serve seven years behind bars.
All sentences are to run concurrently.
The trial, which took approximately two weeks to complete, took a number of interesting twists and turns.
Williams, the number one accused, told the court that he gave a statement to the police after he was arrested and charged, but explained it was given after the police offered him a “deal”. He also said that the statement contained several untruths.
Matthew, who also took the stand, seemed to be suffering from amnesia when he told the court that he could not remember where he was at the time of the incident and up to two hours following it.
Williams was represented by Chesley Hamilton and Matthew was self-represented.
~~Adz:Left~~
