Wilkie Arthur
Freelance Court Correspondent
He was arrested in November of 2020, remanded to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation until November 2023 (three years later), when he was offered 40,000.00 bail and released.
On January 22, 2024 his trial for the November 18th 2020 robbery of Royal Jewels on Leeward Highway, Providenciales commenced, coming to an end on April 18, 2024 with verdicts of guilty by a reduced number of jurors.
After deliberating for some two and half hours, all five members agreed WILLIGENCE NOEL was one of the five men that held up, robbed and put the employees of Royal Jewels in fear with various types of unregistered firearms.
The prosecution’s case against the defendant was that his DNA blood sample was left in the stolen vehicle used in the commission of the robbery. Although not admitted in evidence in the trial, common sense would dictate that police in a high-speed chase of the white van leaving the robbery scene did open fire at the vehicle carrying the robbers.
Medical evidence was laid by Mrs Nayasha Hatmin, Senior Public Prosecutor, for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) against WILLIGENCE NOEL stating that the following day or some 12 hour after the robbery, chase and shooting, Noel attended the hospital with a gunshot injury/injuries for treatment.
During the investigation after the officers found the stolen vehicle without occupants, shortly after the robbery, they discovered jewelry and spent shells in the van that they testified they lost sight of for some 7 to 10 minutes in an area near Dock Yard.
Senior defense human rights attorney Ms Sheena Mair challenged the DNA evidence and made several applicational attempts to the learned trial lady Justice Ms Tanya Lobban-Jackson to get the DNA evidence thrown out but each time the application was refused.
These applications were in the absence of the jury, Ms. Mair contended that her client could not have a fair trial if the DNA evidence was to be allowed. She raised several legal issues with the taking and police procedural process of the lawfulness of the taken and testing of the DNA.
However, her Ladyship, the Hon. Ms. Tanya Lobban-Jackson kept refusing Ms. Mair’s application on what appeared to be different directions and reasons for her decisions each time.
At the conclusion of the three-month trial, Magnetic Media in speaking to Human Rights Attorney Mair about the verdict and outcome of the lengthy trial, and she said an appeal will be logged immediately after sentencing next month.
Her client was convicted of two counts of robbery (one for the jewelry store heist and the other for robbing the occupants of the store), using firearm so as to cause fear and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle.
NOEL is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9, and was ordered to return to prison on remand pending sentencing.
