Couple jailed for 12 years in jewel heist
Mitzi’s Fine Jewelry, Grand Cayman
(CNS): Madeinys Pol-Ebanks (39) and Adrian Adela Gea (33) were jailed for 12 years on Friday for robbery following a judge alone trial in March, where they were convicted of an armed hold-up at Mitzi’s Fine Jewelry store on the West Bay Road in 2015. The couple, who are both originally from Cuba, have continued to deny any part in the daylight robbery, in which around $500,000 worth of jewellery was taken.
However, the trial judge said he believed Gea was the masked man who held up the shop and Ebanks-Pol, a former employee at the shop, was his co-conspirator.
As he handed down his ruling via video link, Justice Stephen Hellman said the case was not the most serious possible robbery but it was still a terrifying ordeal for the clerk in the store as her life was threatened by Gea, who was wearing a mask and carrying what looked like a gun when he came into the store and demanded the jewels.
The judge also noted that the loss of the stolen hand-made jewellery, which has never been recovered, has had a significant negative impact on the store, which has been forced to close down.
He said he found both Gea and Ebanks-Pol equally culpable tor their part in the robbery, and while Gea’s lawyer had refuted allegations that he had been seduced by Ebanks-Pol into the heist at her ex-boss’s store, the judge noted it was likely that if Gea had never met Pol, he may never have found himself in the dock.
Gea stood trial with a clean record with no criminal background whatsoever and no indication that he was in financial trouble that would have driven him to take such a drastic step. As both he and his former lover continued to deny their guilt, there was no evidence before the court for his motivation.
Meanwhile, Ebanks-Pol had previously been convicted of stealing two pieces of jewellery worth around $26,000 from the store owner, Mitzi Callan, while she still worked for her, which she pawned at a local cash-for-gold store just a few days before this robbery. When she admitted that theft, before she was charged with robbery, she claimed that she had been a “work-horse” at the shop who was desperate when she stole the jewellery.
I wonder if the store owner had insurance and whether the value of the jewellery was substantiated?.
Glad for the 12 year sentence perhaps other armed robbers will learn a lesson. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
That two star hotel in Northward is hardly a deterrent, nor the retreat at Fairbanks.
Good job judge.
Stupid sentence, Canover Watson robbed the sick and dying and got 7 years (out already) and these people steal some rocks and get 12 years.WTF?
She planned an armed robbery at a place that she previously worked (where she also stole from) and took half a million dollars which caused the place to permanently close… and she DENIED it all. It’s ridiculous you DONT think she deserves 12 years….
women stealimg again??? and men????
Otherwise known as, people.
????
Of course Cayman would try to pin the blame on the woman. How do we jnok he didn’t have her steal from the store before. How do we know she wasn’t the one pulled into this? Ridiculous!
The sentencing guidelines in this country are so f%@#ed up! Child molesters, rapists, and murderers are serving far less time than thieves/crooks. WTF!!
Lest we forget the 20 year old with a spliff on the beach who would get 15 years for it.
Are they going to be deported?
Why should they? Murderers, child molesters and rapists don’t serve that long or get that kind of punishment. I 100% believe that had they been born Caymanian, the sentence would be less. You don’t know the background or the reasons behind this. The media likes to play a spin on this to make it seem more dramatic, as well.
8:22 am , no they probably won’t because she has the last name Ebanks and he will marry her so they can’t be . But they should be, or sent to the moon where there no jewelry stores .