Desperate purse-snatcher
will appeal his conviction
PHILIPSBURG--Financial problems led a 34-year-old gypsy taxi driver to rob a woman of her purse. However, he was caught immediately, and led on Thursday before a judge who sentenced him to eighteen months, six of which were suspended, with two years’ probation.
After his trial, Francis Alejandro Acevedo Ramos immediately announced that he would appeal his sentence.
Acevedo, who has nothing of a brutal mugger in his appearance, told Judge Rob Goossens that worries over his son had led him to rob a woman on Emmaplein in the early morning of August 25.
He said he had needed money to pay school fees and buy a uniform for his son, who is living with his grandparents in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
Fate turned against him when, after having snatched the purse off the woman’s shoulder, he was immediately confronted by an off-duty police officer who happened to be on the scene. Acevedo tried to evade arrest by running away in the direction of Pointe Blanche, but ran into a car while crossing Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard, after which he was arrested.
He was found to be in possession of an alarm pistol with ammunition. Acevedo told the judge Thursday, he had received the gun from a friend one week before the incident for safekeeping. He said he had carried the gun with him when he picked up his girlfriend from a casino at 4:00am, but failed to explain why the weapon still had been on him while he was jogging in the streets hours later.
Prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks said she was worried about the fact that Acevedo had had a gun in his pocket when he snatched the purse. “What would have happened if the woman had resisted? Would he have used the gun?” she asked rhetorically.
She said she understood Acevedo’s financial problems, “but that is no excuse for robbing a woman who also has to work hard for her money.”
Referring to the fact that arms possession alone would already be good for one year in jail, Ridderbeks said she wanted to send Acevedo to jail for 18 months, six of which to be suspended, with two years’ probation.
Attorney-at-law Remco Stomp underlined that his client was far from a standard robber and pleaded for a completely suspended prison sentence.
Judge Rob Goossens said he understood that Acevedo had committed the crime out of economic desperation, but this could not lead to a sentence without prison time.
