Gerardo George Connolly was found guilty of robbery Friday for using a screwdriver as a weapon to steal a car from a man who had been sleeping in his vehicle on Christmas Day last year.
Justice Kirsty-Ann Gunn acquitted a second man, Shane William McLean Jr., who had been charged with handling stolen goods, the vehicle. Gunn found there was reasonable doubt over whether he knew that Connolly, whom he said had lent him the car, had stolen it.
She said she did not find Connolly a credible witness when he gave evidence in his defence last week. McLean opted not to take the stand to testify.
“Mr. Connolly’s credibility is very much in question,” said Gunn, who heard the case in a judge-alone trial in the Grand Court.
Christmas Day robbery
The allegations against Connolly and McLean stem from a robbery that occurred around 7:30pm on 25 Dec. in the parking lot of Kirk Market in George Town. The victim said he had been awakened in his car by the approach of a man he had seen earlier, who yanked his car door open and threatened him with a screwdriver.
The owner got out of the vehicle, struggled with his assailant and managed to get the screwdriver off him. As they were wrestling, a woman, who has never been identified, got into the driver’s seat.
The victim told police that the male assailant then said, “Give me the gun and let me shoot the boy.” At that point, the victim stopped struggling and the attacker jumped into the passenger seat, and the couple drove away.
Connolly’s DNA was found inside the car on the passenger-side door and on the screwdriver, which the victim handed over to officers at the George Town Police Station on the night of the robbery.
Police found the stolen 2002 Mazda Demio early the next morning by the Yellow Bird Apartments on Rock Hole Road in George Town with McLean inside the car. During his police interview, McLean claimed he had borrowed the vehicle from an acquaintance, Connolly, so that he could drive to Smith Barcadere to take a shower, as his home had no running water.
In his testimony, Connolly told the court that he and McLean were close friends and had been sharing a house at the time of his arrest. He said he often lent his vehicles, which he usually rented, to McLean, and that he would also leave the keys to his work van with McLean in case it needed to be moved while he was away.
Gunn said she had been unconvinced by displays of emotion during Connolly’s testimony in which he appeared to cry and wipe his eyes as he recounted to the court that McLean was a drug user, suffered from depression and had been going through hard times.
In Connolly’s first police interview on 3 Jan., after McLean named him as the man who had lent him the stolen vehicle, Connolly, who had legal counsel at the time, made no comment to police. In a subsequent interview, he denied stealing the vehicle and told police he had been at his girlfriend’s house on Jersey Lane off Rock Hole at the time of the robbery.
In an identification parade two days later, the victim, who had given a description of the assailant to police, did not pick Connolly out of the lineup, the court had heard.
Connolly claimed he had not stolen the car and had never been inside it, and suggested that the only reason his DNA may have been found in the vehicle was because he shared clothes with McLean. Gunn said she agreed with the findings of a DNA forensic expert who testified that it was extremely unlikely that DNA could be transferred in this way.
Connolly had also told the court that his DNA could have been found on the screwdriver if it was from McLean’s yard, because it was likely he would have touched it there. Gunn said she found this argument unconvincing.
Testimony ‘did not ring true’
“I found Mr. Connolly’s evidence to be contrived and totally incredible,” Gunn said, as she handed down her verdict. “His attempt to explain his DNA on the screwdriver by reference to touching everything in the yard is plainly a huge exaggeration … and an attempt to point the finger of suspicion at Mr. McLean.”
She added, “I felt the emotions displayed by Mr. Connolly when recounting Mr. McLean’s personal problems were insincere.”
She said Connolly’s evidence “did not ring true”, and that she believed his initial no-comment interview to police had been made because, at that time, he had not yet concocted a story. She noted that he could simply have told police at that point that his girlfriend could supply his alibi “right there and then”.
After pronouncing that she was finding Connolly guilty of one count of robbery, Gunn turned to McLean.
She noted that, in his police interview, McLean had stated he had borrowed the vehicle from Connolly.
While acknowledging that McLean coming into possession of the stolen car so soon after the robbery, in the middle of the night, was “highly suspicious”, the judge said Connolly’s assertion that in the past, he had often lent cars to McLean, raised a reasonable doubt in her mind as to whether McLean could have known the vehicle in question was stolen.
“I cannot be sure that Mr. McLean, in fact, knew or believed the Mazda to be stolen. Consequently, Mr. McLean must be acquitted,” she said, adding that he was free to go.
Sentencing for Connolly has been set for Friday, 13 Sept.
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