PHILIPSBURG:--- The tribune of the Court of Appeals was packed to its capacity with relatives of the late Michael and Thelma King who were murdered in their villa at Ocean Club Cupe Coy on September 19th, 2012. Also in the court room were the mothers of the two young suspects Jeremiah Chevon Mills and Jamal Jefferson Woolford. Both single parents sat way behind and they followed the entire appeal procedures held on Thursday. While most of the trial was conducted in the Dutch language, a translator was present to translate most of the proceedings so that the relatives who traveled from the United States could understand the proceedings.
The panel comprised of three judges questioned each of the suspects on their role in the crimes they committed at both Happy Star Restaurant and at the home of the Kings.
The main suspect Meyshane Kemar Johnson maintained his position just like he did during the trial in the Court of First Instance claiming that he does not remember anything regarding the crimes he committed on September 19th, 2012 at the Happy Star Restaurant and at the home of the Kings. The President of the Court of Appeals pleaded with Johnson as they question him on what he told police while he was in pre-trial detention compared to what he was telling the Court of Appeals on Thursday. The judges asked Johnson if he remembered when he appeared in the Court of First Instance in April 2013 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Johnson told the court that even that he does not remember and it's only when he returned to the prison he was told by the other inmates that he got a life sentence. When he was asked to tell the court why he filed the appeal, Johnson could hardly say the exact reasons for filing the appeal. He said that he did not waive his rights and he was not in agreement with the decision rendered by the Court of First Instance. The judges tried to go over the statements Johnson gave police hoping that they would refresh his memory but he told them that they want a story and he has no story to tell. Johnson was sent to Curacao for an analysis to be conducted on his mental condition. He returned to the island on Wednesday after spending two months in Curacao to undergo psychiatric and psychological testing. When the judges told Johnson that both specialists determined that nothing is wrong with him and that he could be held fully responsible for his actions and the crimes he committed, he told the court that while he went to Curacao to conduct these tests he only saw the specialists twice. "I wanted to know what is going on in my head and instead of those people doing some kind of scan to see what is wrong with me they saw me twice. The same thing you want to know I also want to know because I cannot remember anything."
Attorney at law Brenda Brooks remained sharp in her defense. She told the court that she is not contesting the charges against her client because she understands the seriousness of the crimes he committed and the impact it has on the island. Attorney Brooks told the court that the prosecution made several blunders in the case and instead of telling the lower court and the defense the truth they hid information from them and tried to cover up their mistakes. Brooks said that she appealed the decision of the first summons and the judge deemed both the first and second summons null and void, but for the third summons they said they were not in a position to rule on it. "Today I am asking this court to apply the law as it is laid down and also deem the third summons null and void. I am also asking this court to also deem the prosecution's case inadmissible. I discussed these summons in the previous hearing and I am discussing them again with you because we are at the right place to discuss these errors. At one point I closed my eyes when the prosecution made their first mistake because the law allows them to correct those mistakes but instead of correcting the mistakes they made more and more. In this case which is a serious case the prosecution committed three fatal errors, and if your court allows them to get away with this then this court will be setting the wrong precedence."
Brooks further told the court that the prosecution has rules and regulations to follow just like defense lawyers. She went as far as telling the court that if a defendant filed his appeal one day late, the appeal court would not even look at his file they would deem it inadmissible because he was late in submitting his appeal and for them late is late, therefore I am reminding this court that when the prosecution makes mistakes there are consequences for those mistakes. During the trial in the Court of First Instance Prosecutor Dounia Bennamar apologized to the King families and she admitted to them that the prosecution made mistakes.
Brooks also told the court that her client was mistreated by police when they arrested him. She said police beat her client so much that he ended up in the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) for treatment. "At first my client did not tell me this because he thought it was normal for police to use excessive violence when arresting people. The prosecution said my client resisted arrest and that was the reason excessive force was used. They also said an officer was injured but nowhere in the file there is evidence of that," Brooks told the court. She further asked the court to respect the decision of the European Union Courts with regards to life sentences because the Supreme Court just recently deemed the life sentences imposed on the Regatta suspects inadmissible and they were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. That decision will be handed down on December 17th, 2013. She further told the court that the Constitutional Court of St. Maarten nullified lifetime sentences citing that it is not in conformity with the constitution. "I am asking this court to apply the rule of law. Just in case your court decides to uphold the third summons where my client was tricked, I am asking you to reduce the sentencing as allowed by the European Courts and St. Maarten." In addressing the psychiatric and psychological evaluation Brooks told the court that it was extremely hard for her as a defense lawyer because she could not get anything out of her client. "This was so hard for me because I cannot defend him properly if I don't know what really happened on the night Michael and Thelma King was killed. I heard from someone that my client has a terrible past regarding his father and that was the reason I asked for the analysis to be conducted in Curacao. When I saw the report and it stated that Johnson's father was killed in an armed robbery I felt the specialists needed to ask more questions on this but they did not. It turned out that robbers slashed Johnson's father throat during a robbery in Jamaica when he was younger."
Attorney General Taco Stein went to court with a 45 page argument as he pleaded with the Court of Appeals to uphold the decision rendered by the Court of First Instance. The Court of First Instance sentenced Johnson to life imprisonment, Jeremiah Chevon Mills to 28 years imprisonment, and Jamal Jefferson Woolford to 22 years.
Stein took up a lot of the court's time to explain the court why the prosecution believes that the life sentence for Johnson should be upheld despite the Constitutional Court's ruling which is still not yet law on St. Maarten. St. Maarten's Attorney General also gave several reasons why he believes that the European Court's decision should not be respected.
Stein said that Johnson gave detailed statements to the police when he was in pre-trial detention and suddenly he cannot remember anything, he said even one of the judges found it strange based on their questioning.
As for the other two suspects, Jeremiah Chevon Mills who was convicted twice before and was on probation when he committed the crimes on September 19th, 2012. When the judges questioned Mills it was clear that he changed his entire story. Mills admitted to robbing the Happy Star Restaurant with Jamal Jefferson Woolford. They both told the court they used "BB" guns to commit the crimes while Johnson drove the car they used to commit the crime. At the home of the Kings the two younger suspects told the court that Mills was the first to enter the home, after that Johnson went to Michael King who was sleeping on a sofa downstairs and held him in a head lock while Mills hit Michael King with the gun on his jaw. Mills told the court when Michael woke up he was in shock to see two men with guns in his face while one had him in a headlock. He said Woolford asked him where was the money and Michael responded by asking which money. At that point Woolford dealt Micheal a strong blow in his stomach. After that Woolford and Mills went upstairs where they met Thelma King sleeping naked. They instructed her to put on clothes and she turned over their monies and jewelry to them. Mills told the court that they also found drugs in the safe of the Kings but Attorney General Taco Stein dispelled that saying that an ION scan was conducted and the results came back negative. He said the only person that claimed drugs were in the home of the Kings is Jeremiah Mills. Mills further told the court that after they got their loot they brought Thelma King downstairs but before they did that they blindfolded her. While downstairs they placed her on a chair and tied her up. Mills said he did that because he wanted to escape without the long arms of the law getting to them. "All of us in this court room knows what people would do for their loved ones. Johnson had Michael King in a headlock and we did not want Thelma King to call the police or do anything that would made us get caught."
Based on the charges, Stein said Mills and Woolford are accomplices to the murder of the Kings because Mills is the one that gave Johnson a second knife when the first one broke. He also used a fire extinguisher to hit Michael. However, Attorney at Law Shaira Bommel told the court that the reason her client filed an appeal was because he is not in agreement with the decision rendered by the lower court. Bommel said her client knows that he committed crimes and he has to be punished for them. Bommel further explained the court that her client Jeremiah Chevon Mills cooperated with the investigation, he told the investigators what he did and what he did not do. It should be noted that Mills changed his story quite a bit, for example he said he did not see Johnson with a knife, he did not give him a second knife and that he and Woolford did not plan to kill or hurt anyone. Bommel told the court that Woolford and Mills left the home together and Johnson remained in the house for seven minutes with the victims and in her opinion a lot could have taken place when Johnson was alone in the house with the victims. Bommel said her client even promised Thelma King that they would not hurt her and they only learnt of the killings when they read it in the newspapers. She said that based on the law the prosecution did not prove her client was an accomplice to the killing of Michael or Thelma King. Therefore she asked the court to acquit her client on those two charges.
Stein told the court that the prosecution believed that they had enough to request a lifetime sentence for Mills but they considered his age when he committed the crime. Stein further stated that even the three judges that presided over the case on Thursday realized that the two suspects namely Woolford and Mills changed their stories and the story they told on Thursday is not matching. The statements they gave police while in pretrial detention and the Court of First Instance made more sense and it matched what Johnson told the investigators.
In the case of Jamal Jefferson Woolford he told the court he did not see Johnson with a knife, instead he said he saw Johnson with a shiny object in his hands, Woolford said he could not remember when he saw the shiny object but he knew he saw and object. He told the court that he did not know if it was a spoon or fork but for him it could have been anything. He told the court that when he went to the home of the Kings he went to get valuables and they got that from Thelma King when they woke her up from her sleep. "I was there to get monies and valuables and as soon as we got that we tied up Thelma King on a chair and left the building." During the trial in the Court of First Instance, Woolford told the court and the investigators that he saw when Johnson slashed Michael's throat and he yelled out at him and told him not to do it. On Thursday he changed his story saying he did not see any of that and that when he left the home with the loot both Michael and Thelma were alive. His lawyer Sharafina Ibrahim also tried to convince the court that her client did not kill anyone. He admitted to the crimes he committed and he should be punished for the crimes he admitted to not the ones the prosecution believed he committed. Attorney Ibrahim also asked the court to acquit Woolford on the accomplice charges in the slaying of Michael and Thelma King. The Court will hand down its decision on December 30th, 2013.