Three brothers arrested for murder of Coke truck driver
It was a particularly brutal crime, the kind that’s not supposed to happen in a small country where everybody is said to know everybody else. Today police arrested and charged three men whom they claim committed the atrocity… and called in the press to talk.
A little over two months after a Coca Cola truck was ambushed on the old Northern Highway and its driver, Anthony Felix shot to death, police have arrested three brothers in connection with the incident. According to Assistant Inspector of Police Cardinal Smith, the arrests are the result of intensive investigations.
A.I.P. Cardinal Smith, C.I.B.
“Last Thursday morning, Corporal Chi and his team launched an operation which led to the arrest of one of the main suspects, Calbert Hinds and his brother, Robert Hinds. Both persons were interviewed and based on the information we received from Robert Hinds we decided to go and look for another brother, Eric Hinds.”
While Robert and Calbert were picked up at their family home at mile fifty-four on the old Northern Highway, police had to go all the way to Orange Walk Town to find Eric. According to A.I.P. Smith, Robert and Eric confessed that they knew of the robbery and fingered their older brother Calbert as the triggerman. Smith says the evidence shows that the holdup was skillfully executed.
A.I.P. Cardinal Smith
“The evidence we have showed that it was planned. I don’t know how long ago, but it could not be more than a day or two. It seems as if they were waiting on the Coke truck because we also gathered information from other witnesses that they had passed the area and nothing happened.”
Smith says that the murder weapon, a double barrel twelve-gauge shotgun, has been recovered. The gun was loaned to Calbert by a resident of Maskall Village. Smith says, however, that none of the approximately seventeen hundred dollars that was stolen has been found. While Eric and Robert do not have any criminal record, Head of C.I.B. Simeon Alvarez, says Calbert is no stranger to the police.
A.I.P. Simeon Alvarez, Head, C.I.B.
“This fellow Calbert Hinds, he has been brought in at the C.I.B. office on several occasions in respect of robberies and holdups between Ladyville and the old Maskall Road, but the complainants would never identify him and their daily life. They are unemployed; all three are unemployed.”
While the case sounded good when it was outlined to reporters this afternoon, presenting in court is another story. But A.I.P. Smith believes that police have a good chance of getting a conviction.
A.I.P. Cardinal Smith
“Well at this point in time we have circumstantial evidence based on the fact that we don’t have any “I see” witnesses, but dealing with investigations for the past thirteen years, I can definitely say that we have a strong case. The only thing is that you will realize that it’s the brothers; they are confessing against brothers, but other than that we still have a few evidence of information that would get us to a conviction.”
The Hinds brothers were arraigned in Magistrate’s Court this afternoon. Patrick Jones for News Five.
The three Hinds brothers have been charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to rob, robbery, grievous harm, use of deadly means of harm and criminal damage. The sideman in the Coke truck, Alan Pandy, was wounded in the incident and has since recovered.
