Leroy Carty avenger sent
to prison for three years
PHILIPSBURG--Leroy Wilson (22) will have to spend three years in prison. The judge in the Court of First Instance found him guilty of attempted manslaughter in retaliation for the murder of Leroy Carty.
Carty was shot and killed in a Front Street crack house on September 17, 2006.
Judge Henk Wattel stated in his June 3 ruling that Wilson should be acquitted of attempted murder because it could not be proven that he had deliberately and intentionally tried to shoot and kill somebody.
During the court hearing on May 13, Prosecutor Dikran Sarian had requested six years for murder, but the judge only imposed five years, two of which were suspended, with three years’ probation, for attempted manslaughter and possession of a firearm.
Carty was the victim of rivalry between two groups of friends that had engaged in various altercations and fights. He was shot after he allegedly had been involved in the maltreatment of the sister of one of the rival group members.
Carty’s friends and relatives started to harass and attack persons they suspected of involvement in the killing. They set fire to houses and fired shots during several incidents. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Wilson was involved in a shooting incident that took place on June 6, 2007, during which a shot was fired at a house at Back Street #86.
The woman who was being shot at only avoided injury by ducking behind an overturned table. Police later found a bullet hole under a window close to where she had been sitting. She had told the police that she had seen two men approaching her dwelling and that both men, whom she had recognised as friends of a neighbour’s son, had aimed a firearm at her.
Judge Wattel stated in his ruling that he considered it proven that Clinton Henry (19) had fired the shot. Henry was sentenced by the Court to eight years on February 21.
The judge said he held it against Wilson that he had taken the law into his own hands by teaming up with Henry to avenge the murder of his friend Leroy Carty. “In doing so he contributed to the spiral of violence that led to strong feelings of insecurity around Back Street, and in society as a whole,” the judge said in his verdict.
Attorney-at-law Zylena Bary had stated that there was insufficient proof to convict her client on attempted murder or manslaughter charges.
