Court rejects killer’s plea to reopen appeal
A panel of judges has rejected a request from a man found guilty of murder to appeal his conviction for a third time.
LeVeck Roberts was jailed for life in 2015 for the double killing of Ricco Furbert and Haile Outerbridge inside the Belvin’s Variety store on Happy Valley Road in 2013.
Although none of the four defendants could be identified at the time of the murders, the trial jury concluded that Roberts was the gunman and had fired the fatal shots.
One of his accomplices in the slaying, Gariko Benjamin, fled the country to Africa and the United States while on police bail. He remained on the run for about two years until he was brought back to Bermuda to face trial in 2017.
Two appeals by Roberts in March 2017 and March 2021 were rejected by the Court of Appeal.
In a bid to reopen the case, Charles Richardson, acting for Roberts, said that hundreds of voice notes and WhatsApp messages that Benjamin made while on the run provided fresh evidence that it was Benjamin, not Roberts, who was the shooter.
The evidence consisted of 114 pages of messages and transcripts of voice chats downloaded from Benjamin’s phone.
It was argued by the Crown at a hearing this month that the material was available to Roberts from about September 2017, when they were disclosed to counsel for Benjamin.
However, Justice of Appeal Sir Gary Hickinbottom wrote later in a ruling: “I shall assume, in the applicant’s favour, that he was not in possession of the fresh evidence, nor could he have obtained it by diligent effort, before he in fact obtained it in 2021.
“In other words, I shall assume it was not available to him at the time of his trial or first appeal or second appeal.”
Sir Gary accepted that the new material had only come to light after Roberts had been convicted, but concluded it did not imply that Benjamin was the shooter.
He wrote: “I have carefully considered all the messages/chats and Mr Richardson, for the applicant, went through the messages/chats upon which he particularly relied.
“As Mr Richardson conceded, nowhere in this corpus of material does Benjamin expressly admit to being the shooter at the Belvin’s murders. Nor does he expressly say that the applicant was not the shooter.
“However, Mr Richardson submitted that, looked at as a whole, the messages/chats indicate that Benjamin was involved in gang activities, heavily and at high level; that he had been the shooter in other, earlier incidents; and that he was involved in the Belvin’s murders.
“In particular, they show that he maintained a close interest in the investigation of the Belvin’s murders and in the prosecution of the applicant for them, including the timings involved in that prosecution
“In all the circumstances, Mr Richardson submitted that it could and should be inferred from this material that Benjamin was the shooter in the Belvin’s murder.
“As the prosecution case against the applicant, accepted by the jury, was put solely on the basis that the applicant was the shooter, he submitted that, in the light of this fresh evidence, the convictions are at least arguably unsafe.”
The judge said: “Elegantly as Mr Richardson put the applicant’s case — and it could not have been better put — in my view, the fresh evidence upon which he relies does not bear the weight of his submission.
“That new evidence does not, even arguably, render the convictions here unsafe.
“In the messages/chats, Benjamin does not expressly admit that he was the shooter, nor does he say that the applicant was not the shooter even when he was aware that the applicant was being prosecuted as the shooter.
“These were private communications, often with family members, and it is clear that Benjamin did not consider for a moment that they would be accessed by any relevant authorities or other ‘outsider’, as shown by his reaction after they were accessed in the criminal proceedings against him.
“In these messages/chats, there was no reason for him to be coy about the part he played in Belvin’s shootings. He was not reluctant to refer to his role in other gang activities.”
Benjamin was arrested in the US on his way back to Bermuda in April 2015. He later pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and was jailed for life in October 2017.
Two other men — Romano Mills and Christoph Duerr — were also convicted and jailed for their part in the murders.
Mills was jailed for life in July 2017.
Although Duerr was found guilty of double murder, that conviction was quashed on appeal. He was given a ten-year sentence for being an accessory.
Sir Gary’s ruling, handed down last week, was supported by Court of Appeal judges Ian Kawaley and Narinder Hargun.
• To read the judgment in full, see Related Media
• It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding court cases. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.
