Jury to decide fate of liquor store robbery suspects

Andrew Lopez

(CNS): The eleven men and women who have been hearing the case against three men accused of an armed liquor store hold-up just before Christmas last year are expected to begin their deliberations Thursday morning. After a full day on Wednesday of detailed directions and a summary of the evidence by the judge in the case, following the three week long trial of Andrew Lopez, Bron Webb and Randy Connor, it will be up to the jurors to decide the men’s fate.

All three men have denied being a part of the robbery at Blackbeard’s in Grand Harbour on 17 December 2014. They were all arrested less than twenty minutes after the heist at Lopez’ house, where the getaway vehicle, which belonged to Lopez’ mother, was parked.

Police say the men were surrounded by cash and the personal possessions of one of the victims of the heist, as well as several items of clothing matching those worn by the robbers, as captured on CCTV. The next day a shotgun that was spray-painted gold and used in the robbery was also found at Lopez’s house secreted in an attic.

The crown claims Lopez was the getaway driver, Connor the man with the golden shotgun and Webb was unarmed and the man who collected the cash. Devon Wright, a fourth man who has also been charged but who is not on trial at present, was said to be carrying a silver handgun but that weapon has never been recovered. Despite playing different roles, the men are all charged as part of a joint enterprise and so all face charges of armed robbery and possession of an unlicensed firearm after the pump action shotgun was certified by a weapons expert as a lethal weapon which was loaded at the time of the stick-up.

If convicted, all three men are facing a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years as a result of the weapon possession.