A jury of eight women and one man deliberated for three hours and forty three minutes, from 12:19 to 4:02 this afternoon in the trial of Allan James, who was facing one count each of attempted murder and robbery.
James was cleared of the attempted murder charge by a vote of 7 to 2, but the jury found him guilty of robbery by a vote of 8 to 1.
The trial began on Monday, May 4, in the courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas, where the two accused men, Marvin Ottley and Allan James, were charged jointly for grievous harm to Kimberly Marin, attempted murder of Clifford Guy, and robbery.
Yesterday, however, Justice Lucas directed the jurors to acquit Marvin Ottley of all the charges against him, because of a lack of prosecutorial evidence against him.
The grievous harm charge against Allan James was also withdrawn. He, on the other hand, was stuck with the attempted murder and robbery charges.
The two men were involved in a robbery that occurred on June 21, 2007, when Sen Sen, a Chinese store located at the corner of Daly and Craig Streets, was robbed of $1,100 by two men who stormed into the building and disarmed the security guard, then cleaned out the cash register.
The store owner, Si Mei Deng, told police that two Creole men, one tall and the other short, held her up in her store at gunpoint and stole the money, after they took away her security guard’s gun.
In his testimony yesterday, James told the court that he was not at the scene of the robbery on the night in question. He testified under oath that he was at the home of his girlfriend, Natalie Gonzalez, and in the morning, he took her to catch a taxi so that she could go to her job at Ready Call Centre.
Gonzalez returned from work and found him at his residence at # 54 Gibnut Street, around 6:00 p.m. on June 21, 2007. Half an hour later, James told the court, he and his girlfriend went to her house at the corner of Iguana Street Extension and Central American Boulevard.
When he arrived at her house, he said, he put on the radio and went to take a shower, after which she prepared supper and they watched television until they both went to sleep, sometime after 9:30 p.m.
However, their sleep was interrupted by a knocking on the door. It turned out that the police had gone to the house for him.
James admitted in court to knowing Clifford Guy, a cousin who he said once lived with him and his grandmother at his home. James told the court that he had asked Guy to move out of his house, because he felt that Guy was putting his and his grandmother’s safety at risk, and he did not see Guy for several years after that.
The two of them would come face-to-face on the night of the robbery, however. Clifford Guy said in court that he saw the robbery occurring and tried to intervene. James fired at him, but he fired back at James after he told him and his accomplice to halt as they were exiting the door of the shop. In the shootout that followed, Kimberly Marin, a passerby, was hit.
Under cross examination from the prosecutor, Crown Counsel, Trienia Young, James refused to admit to being a part of the robbery. He repeatedly answered Young’s question with, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
The jury did not buy James’ alibi that he was not at the scene of the robbery, so they found him guilty.
Justice Lucas has set Thursday, May 14, as sentencing date for Allan James, after mitigation pleas are heard by James’s witnesses.
The minimum sentence for robbery is seven years.