Two men appeared in Grand Court on Tuesday following a theft of a vehicle on Christmas Day last year, in which the victim was threatened with a screwdriver.
Gerardo George Connolly has pleaded not guilty to one count of robbery and Shane William McLean Jr. has denied one charge of handling stolen property.
The jury in the case heard from prosecutor Sophie Quinton-Carter that the owner of the stolen vehicle – a 2002 Mazda Demio – had fallen asleep in his car at the car park at Kirk Market in George Town around 7:30pm on Christmas Day last year.
She said he awoke when he heard footsteps on the gravel by his car and saw a man, whom he’d seen across the road earlier, approach the driver’s door.
”To his surprise, the man pulled the car door open hard,” she said.
The victim then felt something jabbing him in the neck and realised the man was armed with a screwdriver.
”He got out of the car and began to struggle with the male,” she said.
As he wrestled with his assailant, he managed to get hold of the screwdriver, but as this was happening, a woman got into the driver’s seat and began reversing the car.
Quinton-Carter said the victim then heard the man say to the woman, “Give me the gun and let me shoot the boy.”
After hearing that, the victim let go of his attacker, who jumped in the passenger seat, and the car drove off.
The prosecutor said the woman who took part in the robbery has never been identified by police.
Phone, work tools stolen
The victim reported the robbery at George Town Police Station and handed over the screwdriver, which was forensically examined for DNA and fingerprints. He told police his phone and work tools were inside the vehicle when it was stolen.
He gave a detailed description of the robber to police.
Police officers recovered the stolen vehicle a few hours later, near the Yellow Bird Apartments in Rock Hole Road in George Town, the court heard.
Quinton-Carter said police found McLean inside the car and arrested him. During his police interview, she told the jury, he mostly gave ‘no comment’ answers, but did tell officers that Connolly had lent him the car.
Connolly was arrested on 3 Jan. and gave a ‘no comment’ interview to police, she said. He was interviewed again by police on 21 Jan. after forensic analysis showed his DNA had been found on the screwdriver and on the front inside handle of the passenger door, the prosecutor told jurors.
She said Connolly had suggested to police that a possible explanation for his DNA being found was that he sometimes shared clothes with McLean.
Quinton-Carter said Connolly is solely accused of being involved in taking the car, while McLean is accused of receiving goods that he believed to be stolen – the vehicle – but was not involved in stealing the car.
The case continues before Justice Kirsty-Ann Gunn.
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