Allen James Freed of attempted murder but guilty of robbery

In the Supreme Court, a man was found guilty of Robbery today by a jury of eight women and one man. The jury took over three hours to deliver their verdict upon Allen James. James was also charged with Attempted Murder but was found not guilty of that offense. Justice Adolph Lucas has deferred sentencing until May fourteenth in order to give James’ attorney, Oswald Twist, time to prepare a plea for mitigation. The incident occurred on the night of June twenty-first 2007 at Sen Sen Store on Daly Street. According to the evidence, two men entered the store and disarmed the security guard. The owner of the establishment, Si Mei Deng was then held up at gunpoint while the thieves stole eleven hundred dollars from the cash drawer. While the robbery was in progress, the security guard at the next-door game room, Clifford Guy, entered and ordered the robbers not move. When one of them shot at him, Guy returned fire and hit one of the robbers and a woman, Kimberly Marin who was standing at her gate across the street. Both Guy and the gunman tried shooting at each other again but their guns jammed. Allen gave an alibi when he took the witness stand, saying that at the time of the incident, he was at his girlfriend’s house. That girlfriend, Natalie Gonzalez, supported Allen’s testimony in court. A second man, Marvin Ottley, was charged jointly with James but he was acquitted of the charges on Wednesday. Allen and Ottley were also charged with the shooting of Kimberly Marin but that charge was withdrawn in court.