Marigot/ Basseterre:-- Talk Show Host Jean Mark Sharpless (29) (Markavelli) has confessed to shooting to death Rigobert Maurice on Thursday night. Prosecutor Jacques Louvier said Sharpless confessed to the crime during his interrogation with the gendarmes.Sharpless was arrested on Sunday at his Cripple Gate home and was transferred to Guadeloupe on Tuesday where he would await his trial. Asked how long it would take for the case to go to court now that Sharpless has confessed Louvier said there are a lot of cases in front of Sharpless and the process would take as long as 18 months to two years.
SMN News has learnt that a Sharpless already met with a lawyer when he arrived in Guadeloupe on Tuesday midday.
So far the gendarmes still have not found the murder weapon and the person who provided that weapon to Sharpless, as such the investigation is continuing. Louvier did not say if there are other persons involved in the killing of Bertin-Maurice.
Asked if the justice system would now conduct an investigation to see if the Chief of the Territorial Police Flavien Bazile and his officers are guilty of “Negligence dans l’exercise de la fonction or Manquement au devoir” (derliction of duty) Louvier said he does not have all the details on the investigation. He said he is presently off island and when he returns to St. Martin he would see if such an investigation would have to be conducted.
Several persons who witnessed the incident on Thursday at the Collectivity said Bertin-Maurice was armed with a silver weapon, one eyewithness said they still do not know why Bazile did not contact the gendarmes that day if he does not have the power to arrest people. Had Bazile called the gendarmes this young man they said would have been behind bars and not dead.
Residents of St. Martin are now asking what is the purpose of the Territorial Police and if they are able to reduce crime without power. Residents have expressed their disgust with the elected officials who brought Bazile to St. Martin to reorganise the Territorial Police.
Jean Mark Sharpless (host of the Markavelli Show) on MSR Cable had an altercation with Bertin-Maurice when he parked his vehicle in a parking space that supposedly belongs to the tennants living across from the Collectivity of St. Martin.
Sharpless in an interview with SMN News prior to his arrest said he was instructed to park in the space by a territorial police. He said when he parked his vehicle in that space the victim threatened to damage the vehicle. Threats which he said he ignored. Sharpless said later that day the same territorial police who instructed him where to park alerted him of the damage Bertin-Maurice inflicted to the vehicle. He said at that point he took out his cellualar phone and took a photgraph of Bertin-Maurice as he was releasing the air from his car. He said that ignited the argument because the now dead man went inside of the Collectivity demanding to know why he took a photograph of him. Sharpless had said that his phone even got damaged in the altercation.
It is clear that Sharpless did not totally ignore Bertin-Maurice since he came back that night and shot the 20 year old man to death.
SMN News received numerous emails from our readers expressing shock at the news of Sharpless arrest. Many has doubted that the well known television personality had anything to do with the slaying of Bertin Maurice. Markavelli as he is always called will be missed by a large audience on the French side of the island on Monday nights. Markavelli was well known for highlighting the ills of this community. He was one reporter who did not mingle with words when he believed the youths of St. Marten are being neglected.