Email

Print

26 year-old Harry Montero and 2 minors: a 16 year-old and a 17 year-old are free tonight of a robbery charge after they were acquitted in a Magistrate's Court trial. Police couldn't prove that they robbed the Harpy's Security company last year.

According to police, on July 26, 2018, they allegedly went to the security firm and stole to handguns. The arresting officers formally reported that they caught all 3 men in the Lord Ridge Cemetery; they were trying to flee from the pursuing officers.

The men were intercepted, and handcuffed, and the weapons were allegedly retrieved off the ground where they had been thrown.

Police believed that they had an airtight case against all 3 defendants, and so police charged them with robbery for the hold-up at at the security firm, and unlicensed firearm and ammunition charges for the guns which were allegedly found in their possession.

In their trial before Magistrate Michelle Trapp, the police prosecutor called 5 witnesses, who are all a part of law enforcement. After the prosecution closed its case, Leeroy Banner, the defense attorney for one of the accused, told the court that the police failed to provide evidence providing the robbery charge. He also focused on what he asserted was poor crime scene management by the police, and that the exhibits, which included the 2 guns that the men were allegedly caught with, were not handled properly. 

Banner told the court that these exhibits were tainted because of the poor crime scene management, and that from the defendants' perspective, there was uncertainty that the guns produced before the court were the same ones police say that they handled at he scene.

After consideration, Magistrate Trapp agreed with Banner, and acquitted all 3 men of the robbery charge on Wednesday. They are still facing firearms charges, for which a trial is pending. One of the minors is still facing a charge of handling stolen goods for a Harpy security bag, which was allegedly found on him. Finally, Harry Montero is facing firearms and ammunition charges for a separate case.