The Honda CRF450R dirt bike that knocked the officers down on December 27, 2017.
PHILIPSBURG--A man who was sentenced by the Court of First Instance to four years when he was found guilty of attacking two police officers who were performing a routine traffic control on Union Road in Cole Bay on December 27, 2017, was given five years by the Court of Appeals, it emerged Thursday.
Garvin Clint Baptiste (29) was driving a Honda CRF450R motorcycle when the police tried to stop him. However, he did not stop, but drove his dirt bike at high speed towards the two officers, who could barely avoid being hit while performing their duties. This constituted attempted manslaughter, the Court of First Instance said in July 2018 in sentencing the defendant to four years.
The defendant filed for appeal, but the Court of Appeals confirmed his conviction and imposed a higher sentence. The Solicitor-General had called for confirmation of the lesser Court’s verdict.
Following the Court of First Instance, the Appeals Court judges also found Baptiste guilty of the attempted manslaughter of two police officers by driving his motorcycle towards them.
“The accused ignored various stop signs and subsequently seemed to want to escape the police at all cost. By driving into two agents at considerable speed, he risked their lives,” the Appeals Court stated in quoting from the verdict of the judge in the Court of First Instance.
That the two officers only sustained minor injuries was by no means due to the actions of the suspect, but because the officers managed to jump to safety, the Court stated.
The Appeals Court held it against the defendant that he had been sentenced in 2009 for several thefts with violence, and had been convicted in 2016 of fencing and given a partially conditional sentence on three years’ probation.
The motorcycle was declared confiscated.
