By Today Newspaper
GREAT BAY – Reini Etaling D. a just 20-year-old Martinois, does not seem to get it. On May 27 he punched a witness in his face in the courtroom and on Wednesday he made threatening remarks towards attorney Geert Hatzmann. Judge Maria Paulides set the defendant straight and told him not to look at the attorney again.
Hatzmann said yesterday that D. is a former client whom he’d advised in the past to confess to a couple of burglaries because such a confession usually has a positive effect on a sentence. Yesterday D. sat in court accused of a robbery and the burglaries, but this time Nerisa de la Rosa represented him. Hatzmann was in court as the attorney of a co-defendant, Melvin Nolasco M.
When the court addressed the burglaries with D., he glared at Hatzmann, denied the allegations, and said that his former attorney had set him up to confess. is part of a group of five that accosted a tourist whose car had a flat battery in Simpson Bay in the early morning hours of January 27.
Instead of helping the tourist, they robbed him of $160, a laptop, a tablet and some foreign currency. confessed that he had grabbed a bag from the victim’s car, but his co-defendants, Janssel Manuel H. (23) and Melvin M. (27) denied everything. is also accused of threatening police officers with a firearm on February 11 in Dutch Quarter.
Prosecutor Maarten Noordzij considered all charges proven. Against Janssel H. he demanded 8 years of imprisonment because he considers him the driving force behind the robbery. D. is facing 7 years, a sentence that includes punishment for his belligerent behavior in court.
Melvin H. is looking at a 2-year conditional sentence with 3 years of probation and 180 hours of community service.
The court will pronounce the verdicts on September 2.
