Former PA to MLAs guilty of salon robbery
Christine Rae-Smith
(CNS): A woman who managed the George Town office of Winston Connolly and Roy McTaggart when they were both on the government benches as C4C representatives has been found guilty of three counts of robbery and possession of an imitation firearm. Christine Rae-Smith had denied the charges but was convicted following a judge alone trial before Justice Charles Quin, who described her evidence as “highly implausible”, as he pointed to almost a dozen incriminating text messages she exchanged with one of the robbers in the minutes before the frightening stick-up.
Rae-Smith had claimed to be one of the victims of the armed robbery at the Elegant Nails salon in Godfrey Nixon Way, George Town, on 10 July 2015, when two armed, masked men burst into the salon and threatened the women’s lives before making off with cash, phones and jewellery.
But Paul Myles, one of the men who pleaded guilty to the hold-up, turned out to be Rae-Smith’s boyfriend, who had her listed in his phone as “the boss”.
Messages found by police between the couple before and after the robbery, as well as images of firearms on Rae-Smith’s phone, led officers to charge her as the mastermind behind the armed hold-up, in which the Salon owner, staff and a customer were subjected to a terrifying ordeal.
Rae-Smith had tried and failed to explain away what were incredibly damning messages and the images found on her phone of the guns, which matched the descriptions given by the genuine victims. With that evidence, together with the fact that Rae-Smith was clearly in a relationship with one of the robbers, the prosecution had a compelling circumstantial case.
But the court had also heard during the trial from the three genuine victims how Rae-Smith, who suffers from a serious back problem, had challenged the robbers in what the judge described as a “brazen and foolhardy manner” and had also run after them when they fled with over a $1,000 worth of cash and valuables.
The judge asked rhetorically in his ruling why a genuine victim, with a bad back, would run after two armed men and concluded the behaviour could be explained away by the fact she knew that the robbers wouldn’t hurt her.
The judge said that Rae-Smith was a well-educated and articulate business woman who held an important and trusted job as a personal assistance to two politicians and was in partnership with Connolly in at least two businesses. But she had tried to convince the court that the incriminating messages did not mean what they appeared to and that she had made so many errors or sent imprecise messages that were being misconstrued – evidence, Justice Quin said, that was not “worthy of belief”.
The judge said the messages between Rae-Smith and Myles minutes before the robbery, highly sexually charged texting and what appeared to be celebratory communication afterwards, along with images of three monkeys and the well-known saying about keeping quiet, added to the case against Rae-Smith.
Justice Quin described her claims during the trial, that it was one of the salon’s employees that was behind the robbery, as a “wicked suggestion” made in an attempt to distance herself from the crime. Rae-Smith was a “completely dishonest” witness, he said, whose evidence was “riddled with lies”. The judge said the crown had satisfied him beyond reasonable doubt that she was guilty as charged.
The judge found she had played her part orchestrating the robbery, surveying the scene beforehand and booking an appointment for that evening. Then, minutes before the robbery, she gave vital information to the robbers about the valuables and who was in the salon, followed by the signal to come in.
After delivering his guilty verdict on all three robbery counts and possession of the imitation weapons, Justice Quin denied her defence attorney’s requests for bail until the sentencing hearing. He remanded Rae-Smith in custody until January, when he will consider jail terms for her, along with Myles and Antonio Kelly, who have already admitted their part in the robbery.
Following earlier criticisms of the police in another firearm case, where he was forced to acquit two possible gunmen because of the failings of some officers, the judge commended the RCIPS in this investigation.
He said they had worked hard and exercised great patience and diligence in researching and following the phone evidence, putting together a careful and well conducted case. However, the firearms used in this heist were not recovered, so Smith, Myles and Kelly will dodge the mandatory minimum terms for weapons charges, though the guns in the heist may well have been real.
Category: Courts, Crime, Local News
A thugette…what a waste.
wanna be bad couple stay up in jail now
Caymanian @ 9;13 – you should do your own crime show on how to commit a crime and avoid being caught… thanks very much for your tip on what not to do.. we are now much more educated and if we ever consider getting involved in crime we will follow your advice.
And in the meantime I wish that they would amend the firearms law that people can be arrested, charged, tried and convicted for posting pictures on social media with weapons! It is ridiculous the brazen posts with firearms these people have up and 2 months later you’ll hear of them in Court for robbery or attempted murder.
That’s precisely why there will be no law against those posts on social media. One Cayman technically has no ‘jurisdiction’ over such posts, but most importantly, there would be no prosecutions if these were not posted. Law enforcement DEPEND on social media as evidence more than anything else or along with what’s found at scenes these days except evidence found at scenes
Is it April 1st already? Or did this lady attend the Watson and Webb school of how to be a stupid criminal. Who really unearth does that? I mean here are some oooh semi simple rules to doing a criminal act and I ain’t even a pro or have tried even but I do watch some TV.
1. Never eva eva be related to the robber and be at the scene of the crime. I mean not boyfriend or physically related cause foo foo you the first suspect.
2. Never eva eva make any contact with YOUR cellphone with the criminals. Boi dey goin chec dat first ting.
3. Don’t be suspicious or do anything suspicious if you are involved like at the scene. Things such as….oooh….chase the criminals. I mean who does that. Think of oooh the last 1 millions robberies and see how many times a civilian chased the criminals. If that number is less than 50% don’t do it. If it’s less than 1% of 1% then you a dam foo foo hidiot.
4. Don’t store pictures of guns on your phone. In the event your phone is detained it might be a good idea to not make them thing you are one who likes guns or has some desire to have a picture on your phone of the guns the criminals used, just saying.
I honestly think and maybe it’s just me saying this but maybe if the three stooges or Mr. Bean had planned this crime he might have done a better job.
If there is ever a conference somewhere in the world where criminals meet to discuss how to mess up a robbery and scheme this would make the list of dumbest crimes that along with the Watson and Webb shenanigans.
At least I can say this with a fair degree of certainty. The IQ rate on the outside of the slammer just went up globally a few digits.
Well Watson made millions in cash and owns millions in valuables and real estate and spend years splurging before being caught – I cannot agree that we can class him with this bunch relating to tactic
Yeah but you need rank it on stupidity then Watson ahead of them all sending docs from his office computer. Assisting in adjusting tenders and remitting tenders from office. Creating companies with same names. Trust me he is waaaay up there on the stupid list.
9:13 What is ridiculous is this post? You educating people to become professìonaĺ criminals.
women get away with too much on this island. along with the government! glad to see justice working. good job justice quin….
What? Huh? How do women get away with too much on this island? That is such a stupid statement to make. This women didn’t get away with anything either. lol. She’s in jail.
Because too many men looking something else willing to look the other way. Just saying.
Well, then too many men need to keep their D in their pants. Not women’s fault.
What a waste of a life! Robbing a nail salon of $1000 and some phones! What an idiot.
Maybe she was just starting and would have continued until she had more than $1000.
Such a stupid girl. I wonder why the politicians hired her? How did she make it past the first interview? Certainly not office material.
maybe not hired for typing ability.
So very sad for her daughter, a young athlete.
I hope she manage to get past this somehow and not fall to the way side. Poor thing this is going to be so hard on her. And such a lovely young girl.
Family and friends really need to rally around her now, she will need positive support to get through what I believe will be difficult times ahead.
All so very sad…really hope she will be fine.
Dumb and dumber
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2017 Christine.
From all of us who are law abiding citizens in the Cayman Islands.
I can’t believe someone threw away their freedoms for a thousand dollars. And it would have been split 3 ways! so 333.33 cents each. Whoa. What a haul!
Okay, would be robbers. Now. I don’t steal. Or rob. But lets throw out some common sense. If your gonna rob a place. Calculate the amount of years your gonna get, If you get caught. And multiply those years by the salary you would get if you just got a job. Even at burger king you would make 10K a year.
So this person is going to get 7 to 9 years, and If you are not going to haul in 70 to 90K CI….DON”T DO IT.
It’s that simple.
Then again, instead of justifying risk vs reward, why not just say… Don’t do it.
I remember her from high school, from then she was bad. Bullied and was always threatening and intimidating other students. I was not surprised when I first heard about the incident.
I’m shocked, to risk your freedom, access to your kids and future prospects for this? I’m hearing too much about females who want to be “bad gyals” what’s wrong with wanting to be good women. I don’t really know her that well but this was a bad decision from jump. On top of it being reckless, it wasn’t even planned or executed that well and her defense was crap. I’d thought perhaps maybe he was forcing her to participate or something but it seems she was in it to win it. I just don’t get the allure of this foolish gambling with lives.
Looks like she’s been nailed. In multiple ways.
Please remember she has a teenage child who can read these comments. No, what she did was not right. But have some respect.
She should have thought about the welfare of her underage daughters before she terrorized innocent people in a hair salon.
Seems she didn’t have respect for herself.
I swear this society picks and chooses who to feel sympathy for. I am so sure you don’t ask others to be considerate of their dependents on other crime articles. Ugh.
Noted but in all honesty you should XXXXX for having a teen aged child and doing something so darn stupid and for what??? $1,000 let’s say $2,000….something that with a job you can make in a month. So you risk EVERYTHING…..your child included for a month’s salary ??
Respect starts at home…..it should have started in her head.
Sounds familiar. Parents can shun duties while the community raises your child.
#gocrymeariver
Don’t be silly. She forfeited any such consideration and respect when she committed the crime!
Yep shes hammered down now.
Well done Christine. You lay down with dog and you wake up with fleas, then prison. Well done, well done!
Bonnie and Clyde
You mean, bone head and clod.
Yep. Who could possibly imagine that if the police might look at the robbers phones if they arrested them? And who keeps photos of themselves with illegal firearms on their phone? I guess the same kind of idiots that post those on their Facebook pages. You can’t fix stupid.
Look around. There are many people living among us who are never held accountable for their behavior. This one just happened to get caught.
So true but you can lock them away.
Hardly. More like Laurel and Hardy!
Don’t disrespect them with this job. An idiot could have planned this better.