PHILIPSBURG--Impeccably dressed in dark dress pants and a light coloured, long-sleeved shirt, black shiny shoes on his feet, and his hair handsomely braided, Jonathane Halim Mera (29) eloquently defended himself Wednesday in a case of assault and battery, and destruction of property. Despite his civilised appearance, the defendant damaged a cash register at Subway on February 4, 2015, and committed assault and battery at a barbecue at Nazca Peruvian restaurant on Boardwalk Boulevard on June 7, during which he also damaged a portable speaker. In the first incident, during which the suspect had become enraged after he felt he had been unjustly treated by a Subway-employee over a “value meal,” the Prosecutor’s Office had offered him a conditional dismissal if he paid damages for the broken cash register to the tune of US $3,179. However, as he had only been doing odd jobs, primarily “on the beach,” he had actually only paid US $100. Concerning the incident of June this year, Halim told the Judge he was invited to the barbecue, but was still demanded “in a very disrespectful manner” to pay US $30 for his food. During the fight he was hit on his head by a bottle.
“I hit the man with the bottle once, and gave him a series of uppercuts. That’s all,” the defendant told the Judge.
His adversary had told the police he was hit with a bottle 15 times, but Halim said the witness was lying. “It is a major crime when you lie in your testimony,” the do-it-yourself lawyer told the Judge. The defendant took his defence upon himself, as his attorney had called in sick.
“I gave him 13 to 14 uppercuts. If I would have hit him with a bottle 14 to 15 times his face would have looked a lot worse,” he told the Judge when confronted with pictures of the victim’s bruised and swollen face.
Halim, who has no criminal record in St. Maarten, spent four years in jail in Martinique.
The Prosecutor said the defendant has “a lot of fire” in him, which he had used in the wrong way. Both counts were found proven, as self-defence pleadings in the second case were dismissed.
For both crimes combined, the Prosecutor called for a prison sentence of 97 days, 90 of which were to be suspended, on three years’ probation, with 60 hours of community service, and payment of US $3,079 in damages.
“I’m very grateful for the second chance I got from the Prosecutor,” the defendant said in response to the charges.
The Judge found “severe” assault and destruction of the cash register and the speaker proven. In stating that the defendant is not a robber and is working very hard to make a living, the Judge said the Prosecutor’s proposal “made a lot of sense.” Therefore, Halim was sentenced according to the Prosecutor’s demand.
