The three Grenadians who fled to St. Vincent after escaping prison in their home country have been charged with murder in connection with the disappearance of the two US sailors’ whose yacht they allegedly hijacked and sailed to the northern neighbouring country.
Ron Mitchell, 30, Atiba Stanisclaus, 25, and Trevon Robertson, 23, all of Paradise, St. Andrew, Grenada, appeared in court in St. George’s today (Thursday) and were remanded into custody.
They were jointly charged with two counts of capital murder by intentionally causing the death of US nationals Ralph Hendry and Kathleen Brandel.
They were also charged with escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery, and two counts of kidnapping.
Additionally, Stanislaus was charged with one count of rape.
All three made their first court appearance at St. George’s Magistrate’s Court and were remanded to His Majesty’s Prison, police in Grenada said on their Facebook page.
They are scheduled to be brought back to court on March 27.
The men were repatriated to Grenada on Monday, after the Senior Magistrate in St. Vincent, Colin John issued an order for their removal from the country.
They had pleaded guilty one week earlier to four immigration offences and spent a week in prison in Kingstown awaiting their sentencing.
Police in St. Vincent arrested the men in Petit Bordel, a village on the island’s northwest coast on Feb. 21, shooting Mitchell in the leg allegedly after began wrestling with officers.
The court heard that the men arrived in St. Vincent on Monday, Feb. 18, one day after escaping from a police station in Grenada.
They told the police officers that they arrived in St. Vincent on board a yacht captained by Mitchell, which they left at Cumberland and used the dinghy to travel north to Petit Bordel, prosecutor acting Corporal of Police Corlene Samuel told the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court.
The prosecutor further said the men told police that they did not clear with authorities.
The prosecutor told the court that the men were taken to the Central Police Station and were handed over to immigration authorities.
The magistrate said that based on the facts he thinks that justice would be best served by repatriating the men.
John ordered that the men be removed from the state and sent back to Grenada as soon as practicable.
iWitness News understands that the men were repatriated that same day.
During the early stages of the investigation, a team of five investigators from Grenada had travelled to St. Vincent and joined their counterparts in Kingstown in the joint probe.
They should’ve serve there time here before they were sent back to there country
This is one good reason capital punishment should be considered having exceed the Threshold of the” worst of the worst”. It was alleged that alleged murderer Stanislaus tossed the female victim over board after committing the crime of murder in ghe first degree. It wasvalso alleged that this was not the first time he raped someone.