Source Today Newspaper
GREAT BAY – “It was a den of robbers,” was how public prosecutor Maarten Noordzij described the situation he found during a house search at the residence of twin brothers Thaddeas Octavio and Marini Cecilo Guevarro Nunes on August 5.
Apparently, the mess was bad enough for law enforcement to call in child protection services. They ordered the 35-year old brothers to clean up the mess to create an acceptable environment for the children in the house. At least that part of the mission was accomplished.
Last week, the brothers were in court facing charges of weapons and drugs possession, laundering a car and forgery.
The court found Marini Nunes guilty of the possession of 1,865 grams of marijuana and an air rifle.
His brother Thaddeus was charged with threatening the partner of his sister on May 29, after he got wind that the man had hit her. The court found proof for the threat, but not for the allegation that Nunes had used a firearm in the process.
Another charge against Thaddeus was the laundering of a BMW, a car he had bought for $15,000 on the French side. Investigators considered this suspicious, because the defendant does not have any income; he lives off the support he receives from his mother.
But Thaddeus told the court that he had lived in the Netherlands for 9.5 years and that he had saved money during that time. The court accepted this explanation.
The next charge concerned forgery of a bill of sale. Because Thaddeus did not have a driver’s license at the time, he was unable to insure the vehicle. Therefore, he wrote a bill of sale that transferred the car to the name of his girlfriend. Because no money changed hands, the prosecution considered this forgery, though prosecutor Maarten Noordzij conceded that the defendant had not done this with bad intentions. He just did not know that he was doing something illegal.
Lastly, Thaddeaus was charged with the possession of the same air rifle and fourteen bullets. The rifle was lying on a coffee table when detectives raided the house on August 5.
The prosecutor asked the court to acquit Thaddeus of laundering the car and of threatening the partner of his sister with a weapon, but asked a conviction for making the threat and for forgery. The demand was 80 hours of community service and a 1-month conditional prison sentence.
The prosecutor demanded a 1-year prison sentence against Marini, with 4 months suspended.
Attorney Shaira Bommel said that sending Marini back to prison does not serve any purpose. “He is a single father and he has to take care of his kids. He bought the marijuana for a couple of hundred dollars for his personal use; the quality was not good enough for resale.” Bommel asked the court to acquit Thaddeus also of the threat for lack of convincing evidence.
Judge Dirk Gruijters acquitted Thaddeus of threat with a weapon and of laundering the car but sentenced him for making the threats and the forgery to 120 hours of community service. The judge sentenced Marini to 12 months of imprisonment, with 9 months suspended and 2 years of probation.
