Four convicted for beating
two gay American tourists
PHILIPSBURG--The suspects in what has come to be known as the bashing of two homosexual tourists from the United States in the Maho area on April 6 received prison sentences Thursday ranging from six months to six years.
The judge did not consider it proven that the main suspect had had the intention to kill the victims when he drove his car into the men and attacked them with a wheel wrench after he and his friends had had an altercation with a group of American vacationers at Bamboo Bernie’s restaurant.
Judge Jan Harmen Bosch acquitted Michel Steeve “Duracell” Javois (21) of attempted murder and manslaughter charges, but considered it proven that the man from Guadeloupe had committed an act of public violence in which he had inflicted severe bodily harm upon the victims.
As he had wielded the wrench and had inflicted the severest injuries, Javois received the highest penalty of six years, with reduction of time spent in pre-trial detention.
The judge rejected as “untrue” the claim of Javois’ lawyer Monique Hofman-Ruigrok that her client had only observed the incident from a distance.
The court found Javois’ co-suspects also guilty of the lesser charge of public violence, the only charge against them, and sentenced Glen Roy Cockly (21) and Allen Henley Daniel (20) of French St. Martin to three years because they had both been fighting with the victims. Judge Bosch did not deem it necessary for a psychiatrist to file a report on Daniel’s state of mind. He turned down attorney Zylena Bary’s request for such a report.
The only female suspect, Micheline Francisca Delaney (18) of French St. Martin, was sentenced to six months in jail. The judge did not consider it proven that she had wanted to come to the victims’ rescue and found her guilty of having kicked one of them with her foot while he was unconscious.
Ryan Smith and Richard Jefferson, employees of the CBS News show 48 Hours, were both very seriously injured. Jefferson recovered shortly after the incident, but Smith suffered massive brain damage and was unable to speak properly for several months.
Smith and friends were patronising Bamboo Bernie’s and ran into the suspects, who expressed outrage at Smith for his sexual preference. They attacked Smith and company after they had exited the establishment.
Judge Bosch said the fight had originated from discrimination and contempt for other people. He held it against the suspects that none of them had stopped the others in the fight that ended in the near death of one of the victims.
Prosecutor Taco Stein took a firm stance against the suspects. During Tuesday’s court hearing he asked the judge to impose 10 years on Javois, five years on Cockly and Daniel and three years for Delaney.
“Being gay was not the issue here, but meaningless violence to annoy other people,” Stein said.
However, Smith contested the prosecutor’s comments in a reaction to the Associated Press. “It was because we were gay. Period. There is no question,” said Smith, who returned to work in late September. “I really hope that anybody who knows about this case doesn’t simply write it off as … public violence. This was an attack on someone based on who they are.”
Smith said he had made a full recovery despite the severity of his injuries. “I could not talk … I couldn’t read at all,” he said. “I couldn’t follow conversations and what was worse for me, I couldn’t even follow my own news magazine programme.”
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