Kapris changes plea to not guilty

IN a new twist of events, high profile prisoner and alleged mastermind of the Bank South Pacific (BSP) Madang robbery, William Nanua Kapris was yesterday allowed by Justice David Cannings to vacate his guilty plea to not guilty.
Kapris had pleaded guilty to two counts, one of conspiracy and the other armed robbery during an earlier arrangement.
The morning hearing was adjourned when counsel David Dotaona received fresh instructions from his client of the change of heart. Dotaona then sought leave to have the pleas changed.
In his application Dotaona argued that with the inadmissibility of the controversial video footage and the states failure to find matches to the fingerprint photo evidence tendered on Tuesday, this showed that “there is no evidence against my client”.
The ruling allowing the change of plea disappointed prosecution team.
Senior state prosecutor Pondros Kaluwin asked the judge if he could grant him a further adjournment so as to speak to his principals in Port Moresby and that he would need time to consider what others fresh evidence or witness he  would have to either recall or locate   with the new turn of events.
Kaluwin also argued in his submission that the change of Kapris’ plea was unfair seeing that tailored evidence was already before the court and that no good grounds were produced.
Cannings based his ruling on section 563 of the criminal code which he said had certain requirements that needed to be followed before granting of requests to change pleas.
He said that the pre-condition of section 563 had been met and that it was a matter of discretion of the court whether to grant or not to.
The state would bear the onus of proving to the court why the defendant should not be granted leave to change his plea and it is up to the accused counsel to show good grounds.
“There has been no abuse of process.
“The defence has not  led the court to believe that anything deliberate, tactful or planned had occurred in the beginning and that this move had been seen as a move that the court had been caught out, even tricking the state,” Cannings said
“There appears to be a genuine response to the way the application is done.
“Also in the manner in which the evidence is being led and that there is a genuine challenge of plea.
“The state has not close its case.
“If it needs more evidence then it can call on more witness or if it needs more time to do so,” Cannings added.
The case continues this morning.