Gerardo George Connolly, accused of stealing a car after threatening the owner with a screwdriver, told a court that his DNA found in the stolen vehicle must have come from clothes he shared with a co-defendant.
Connolly denied he had anything to do with the Christmas Day robbery at the Kirk Market car park, despite a forensics expert finding there was only a 1 in 540 septillion (540 followed by 24 zeros) of a chance that the DNA found inside the passenger-side door of the stolen vehicle was not his.
Connolly said since he had not stolen the car and had never been inside it, the only explanation he could suggest for his DNA being found in the stolen silver 2002 Mazda Demio was that he and his then housemate, Shane William McLean Jr., would “wear each other’s clothes”, such as hoodies, jackets, socks and even underwear.
McLean is also appearing before the court in the case, accused of handling stolen goods – the vehicle.
A few hours after the car was reported stolen, police officers recovered it with McLean inside near the Yellow Bird Apartments on Rock Hole Road in George Town, prosecutor Sophie Quinton-Carter told the court earlier.
Connolly was arrested after McLean told police that he had borrowed the car from him.
Robbed on Christmas Day
The car’s owner had been sleeping in the vehicle with the window open when he was awoken by a man – whom the prosecution says was Connolly – approaching on foot, armed with a screwdriver, the court heard earlier.
After the man pulled open the door, the owner got out and the two began struggling. While this was going on, a woman, who has never been identified, got in the driver’s seat. The assailant then jumped into the passenger seat and the two drove away.
Quinton-Carter described the victim as an “easy target” who was alone in his car when he was robbed.
The screwdriver was left at the scene and the victim handed it in at the George Town Police Station, the prosecution said.
Connolly’s DNA was also found on the screwdriver, the court heard.
However, Connolly’s defence counsel, Prathna Bodden, in her closing statement to Justice Kirsty-Ann Gunn, questioned whether the screwdriver presented as evidence in the case was the actual screwdriver used in the robbery.
She said the court did not know who the victim spoke to at the police station, who he gave the screwdriver to at the station, or at what time he handed over the screwdriver.
“We actually don’t know what happened to the screwdriver,” she added.
She argued that the DNA is the only evidence against her client, noting that in an identity parade in which he – but not McLean – took part, the victim failed to identify him, and that Connolly’s fingerprints had not been found in the vehicle.
She also pointed out to the court that the complainant’s DNA had also not been found on the screwdriver, even though he was the one who handed it over to police.
‘Good friends’
Connolly, in his testimony, said he believed his DNA was on the screwdriver because it had been in the yard of the premises he had shared with McLean for several months last year, and it was very likely he would have handled it at some stage.
He appeared to become emotional at times, wiping his eyes, as he described “hard times” that McLean, whom he said he considered a friend, had gone through. He said McLean dealt with this by taking drugs at least daily.
He told the court he didn’t understand why McLean had described him to police as a mere acquaintance, whose address he did not know.
“We are good friends,” he said.
Connolly told the court that he would, at times, lend to McLean vehicles that he had rented. He also had a work van that contained tools that he had also previously lent to McLean, he said.
The court had heard that the stolen Mazda had contained tools belonging to the victim. The tools were still in the car when it was recovered.
In her closing argument, Quinton-Carter told Justice Gunn, who is presiding over the judge-along trial, that since it was commonplace for Connolly to share his vehicles with McLean, it was not unusual that he would lend the stolen car to McLean, who, the court heard, had planned to drive it to Smith Barcadere so he could shower there.
Greg Walcolm, representing McLean, however, used this as a counter argument, saying if it was normal for Connolly to lend cars to McLean, including his work vehicle with tools in it, there would be no reason for his client to question where Connolly had gotten the car, therefore, he could not have known it was stolen.
McLean declined to give evidence in the trial.
Gunn said she would deliver her verdict in the case on Friday afternoon, 28 June.
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