Lodge Village youth found guilty of robbery

Last year a man waiting in his car for his girlfriend was robbed of his cash at what he thought was gun point, and last Friday, a Lodge Village youth was convicted for the offence.

Raheem DaSilva remains incarcerated until November 29, when he will return to the High Court to be sentenced for the robbery of Phillip Alexander of $2,000 (the defendant disputes the amount as $400), which occurred on April 19, 2018.

Two pivotal pieces of evidence that worked against DaSilva during his trial was his confession given in an interview with the police, and the evidence of a hairdresser who came onto the scene while the robbery was in progress.

This hairdresser knew DaSilva very well, and told the court that the young man, who was 20 years old at the time of the offence, “born in my hand.” “I have known this child all my life,” she assured.

Her identification was crucial because DaSilva had been wearing a “batman” type mask at the time, which covered part of his features.

The hairdresser was close to the scene because she was doing the hair of the girlfriend of Alexander at the time.

At around 9 pm on the said date, Alexander, a builder of Frenches, was waiting for his girlfriend in his car, while listening to the radio, with all of his windows down.

Then he dozed off, and something mashed into his face. Alexander grabbed it, and thought it was a gun so he said something like “Oh God…Somebody send you to kill me?”

The attacker told him to pass the money, and asked if “is just so you want to dead.” Alexander was lashed in his belly with the object, and all he could do, he said, is put his hand in his pocket and take out the money.

Alexander had started talking loudly because he knew his girlfriend was nearby.

However, the hairdresser heard him, and she ran outside. She saw DaSilva, and, using expletives, she called “Raheem”, asking him if it’s just so he wanted to rob Alexander (who she called by a nickname). The assailant appeared to freeze when he heard his name, according to the hairdresser.

Although someone shouted to her that he had a gun, the hairdresser said she didn’t care and that she was going up to him. However, she was not able to grab DaSilva before he fled.

The business woman also told the court that she had seen DaSilva on all her CCTV cameras minutes before the incident.

DaSilva chose to counter this by saying he doesn’t know the hairdresser, and that she must be mistaken or is lying.

He said that he was chilling and smoking a spliff at the time of the robbery and then he went to bed. He awoke when the police came for him. The police claimed to find $350 and two pieces of steel welded together in the shape of a gun, but DaSilva said he didn’t know anything about the steel because he was sleeping in an old abandoned building.

DaSilva also said that the police slapped him repeatedly and threatened him, forced him to take his pants and boxers off, and squat. A neighbour heard him screaming, he said, but this neighbour said she didn’t hear anything of the sort when she came to court.

While waiting for the decision, DaSilva yawned multiple times while four lawyers were being called to the bar.

The young man, who has been thrown out of his mother’s house, will go through a social inquiry before being sentenced.

The trial was prosecuted by crown counsel Renée Simmons, while DaSilva was unrepresented.