On December 30, 2013, the Common Court of Appeal of Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire Sint Eustatius and Saba passed sentence on Meyshane
Johnson, the main suspect in the OCEAN case, in which the King couple lost their life. In the Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten, Johnson was sentenced to life
imprisonment.
This sentence was not upheld by the Appeals Court.All arguments that were brought forward by the defense were rejected by the Court, with which the issue of the allegedly invalid subpoena is a thing of the past. An argument that the prosecution had deliberately misled Johnson when served with the summons was also passed, with the consideration that defense had argued that the prosecution had intentionally prepared an ambiguous document but had failed to produce any substantiation of said claim.
An argument that the prosecution should be declared inadmissible also failed to impress the Appeals Court.
As for the case itself, the Appeals Court ruled against all the arguments brought forward by the defense to refute the evidence presented in the case. All charges on the indictment were declared legally and convincingly proven.
These charges were: one count of committing theft with violence by two or more persons, one count of committing theft with violence by two or more persons, causing the death of Michael and Thelma King, one count of deprivation of the liberty of Thelma King, one count of murder in the first degree of Thelma King,
one count of murder committed by more persons of Michael King and one count of laundering the proceeds of said crimes.
In accordance with the reports that were prepared after a psychiatrical and psychological observation of six weeks the Appeals Court concluded Johnson was fully responsible for his actions.
In the considerations on the penalties the Appeals Court stated the following:
murder is one of the most serious offenses in our criminal law and is therefore threatened with lifelong imprisonment. Such a punishment should, however, be approached with the utmost restraint. In this case the facts are serious: escalating violence, leading to the incomprehensible and horrific death of two
people. But the Court also finds that the suspect is only 30 years of age. In this situation a life sentence will be very lengthy! The Court also considers that the suspect has not been sentenced for earlier crimes in this jurisdiction and that the facts happened in the space of a few hours, concluding that one cannot speak of
a pattern of violence. These arguments have motivated the Appeals Court to reach a punishment of 30 years of imprisonment.
The co-suspects in the case, Jamal Wolford and Jeremiah Mills were acquitted of part of the charges and received lower sentences accordingly. The appeals Court didn’t consider it proven that Woolford was involved in the murder of Thelma and Michael King, as he had left the home of the couple before the actual killing took
place. He was convicted for his part in the theft with violence committed by two or more persons in the Chinese restaurant, and his part in the theft with violence committed by two or more persons, causing the death of Thelma and Michael King, the deprivation of the liberty of Thelma King and the laundering of the proceeds of these crimes. The Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten had ordered a 22 years’ imprisonment for Woolford, the Appeals Court lowered that to 18 years.
Mills was acquitted of the murder of Thelma King, as the Appeals Court concluded that he too had left the home of the couple at the time Thelma was murdered. He was convicted for his part in all the other crimes mentioned before. In first instance he received a sentence of 28 years of imprisonment; the Appeals Court lowered that to 25 years, taking into account that he had been sentenced earlier for theft and extortion and was currently on probation.
The Prosecution is studying the verdicts in this case to assess the possibilities of bringing the case before the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in The Hague.
Sint Maarten, January 2, 2014