(CMR) Shane Edward Connor (44) has been found guilty of his involvement in a June 2017 Patrick Island home invasion after an almost three week trial. The jury returned the verdict after they heard numerous prosecution witnesses that Connor was the mastermind behind the robbery.
Attorney Paul Keleher QC had urged the jury to find him not guilty on Monday on the basis that he was an innocent man being wrongly accused. In his defense, Keleher argued that Connor was the victim of a poor investigation and “unsatisfactory evidence”.
One of Connor's co-accused, Caine Thomas, testified for the prosecution but his defense attorney attempted to discredit him by calling him a liar. On the second day of the trial that witness shared how he had come to know Connor as a teenager and that Connor hung around his father's house.
Thomas was then approached by Connor and others to participate in a criminal enterprise that night that started with a bundled attempt to rob another home in West Bay.
Connor's defense was that he was at a bar in East End on the night of the incident and his attorney blamed the police for not securing CCTV footage on his behalf. Phone evidence was presented that showed that Connor's phone was actually in George Town at the time of the incident. He also shared that his father would have corroborated his story but not statement from him was obtained. Failures which Connor claims was because the police were conspiring against him.
When Connor took the stand he denied having written the messages at all.
The prosecution provided DNA evidence on a glove which his defense attorney explained away because he lived closed to the other men. The defense also attempted to dismiss the importance of phone and WhatsApp messages stating that the police waited to charge Connor despite having had that evidence for several years. He had in fact blamed the police for fabricating the phone evidence against him.
Prosecutor Scott Wainwright summed up the prosecution’s case against Connor by stating that he was the third man in this aggravated burglary that shocked the community. The victims were subjected to a horrific ordeal in the early morning hours of that fateful night which included being assaulted with a gun and having their lives threatened.
Both husband and wife testified via video link from overseas about the harrowing ordeal.
The jury received the case on Tuesday before returning the guilty verdict on Wednesday afternoon.
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