BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - ROMEO SYLVESTER TWEED, the first witness in the case against four Dominican Republic nationals, said he lost a half million dollars in materials on December 14, 2011.
Angel Palmer, Ramon Benitezsaba, Juan Frederico Samiento and Arismandi Rivera are accused of attempting to steal a large quantity of copper wire, scrap metals, old transformers and batteries, valued at $EC.5M.
Testifying for the prosecution over the past three days, Tweed said he owned a business in which he procured scrap metals – including copper, batteries, lead and old transformers - for export.
He testified at length about the type of work he does and gave detailed description of the items and their specific parts.
The materials, he told the court, were stored on the south eastern corner of the Solid Waste Management Corporation (SSMC) Landfill on 20-30 thousand square feet of land, which he rented for EC$1 per annum.
Tweed indicated that he also did work for SSMC in exchange for use of the space.
He testified that he had his scrap metals in a particular layout at his storage space, which was fenced to restrict access to the area, to which SSMC workers had access.
Tweed said he visited the area regularly, at least twice to three times per week, usually when he had someone working there.
The witness explained that his visit to the area on December 14, 2011 revealed that a large quantity of his materials had been stolen.
Speaking to the value of the materials, the witness explained that at US$3 per pound, he had at least 13 tons of copper at the time of the heist.
He indicated that at the time the materials were stolen, he was preparing them for export.
At cross examination, Tweed was asked if he had signage to indicate that his area was restricted, to which he replied in the negative.
He was also asked if he kept a record of the items he procured, and he indicated that he did through the person of Sylvanie Tweed.
He said his last stock taking was a few weeks prior to being robbed.
When asked if there were any differentiating markings on his items, he responded in the affirmative indicating that there were serial numbers on a quantity of the items.
It was put to Tweed that he had no way of determining what items at the Landfill were his; a statement which he counted as incorrect.
When questioned about the missing materials, Tweed said that on the said date, he saw less than one ton of copper, he did not see any batteries and he only saw the housing of the transformers.
One of the defendants’ counsel asked, "These people are accused of attempting to steal batteries that weren't there and that they had to lift with a forklift?"
The case began last Wednesday (Feb. 20) with counsel Garth Wilkin leading the prosecution team, while each accused has legal representation of their own.
Palmer is being represented by Anthony Johnson, Rivera by John Cato, Benitezsaba by Fitzroy Eddy and Samiento by Hesketh Benjamin.
