PHILIPSBURG--The police arrested a young businessman this week for an execution-style killing at an A.Th. Illidge Road guesthouse in 2007.
Prosecutors confirmed Friday that a man identified only as R.L. had been held on Monday for his alleged involvement in the gunning down of 33-year-old Michael Vernon Hanley and the shooting of another man in the arm. Both victims were from St. Kitts.
Hanley's murder was among the most mysterious and most violent in recent years.
Reports indicated that a gunman had walked into Room 119 at Lake's Guesthouse on August 11, 2007, and fired at least nine times, killing one man and injuring another. A woman reportedly was with the men.
Authorities were unable to discuss the motive in the Hanley shooting at the time.
This newspaper reported at that time that Hanley had a violent past. He had been convicted of armed robbery in 1994. He also allegedly had stabbed a man in the chest and punctured his lung.
Sources said investigators researching another recent murder learned that L. suggested some involvement in the Hanley killing.
L. was convicted in 1994 and in 2001 for fencing. He runs a pawn shop.
Authorities had held another man identified as R.L. in the days after the killing, but Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos said they were two different men.
Meanwhile, a man and a woman arrested this week for the December 11, 2009, killing of Haitian Saliba Absalon are still in custody. No one else has been arrested in any recent murder investigation.
