Man jailed over K1mil robbery free after ‘serious error’

By BEVERLY PETER
A MAN who was jailed 16 years for a million-Kina armed robbery was released by the Supreme Court yesterday due to errors of law on his conviction.
Alphonse Lance Moha was convicted for robbing TropicAir of K1.195 million in cash shipment at Jackson International Airport in 2016.
Justice David Cannings, on Tuesday, said Moha’s grounds for appealing his conviction was upheld as there was a serious miscarriage of law.
Moha said the judge who conducted his trail made a mistake to admit the confessional statement which the police induced from him, promising him that they will release him.
He said the decision on his conviction identified him as the person who obtained the getaway car and not the driver.
Moha further added that the National Court identified him as the principal offender without establishing whether he was the driver or not and that the court had also failed to make a ruling on his no-case submission.
Justice Cannings, representing Justice Ravunama Auka and Justice Sinclair Gora on the judgment, said an error of law was made in admitting the confessional statement and the recording of interview (ROI) obtained by persuasion.
“It was a serious error and under all the circumstances of the case, we consider that the verdict of guilty should be set aside on the grounds that it is unsafe and unsatisfactory,” he said.
“There was a wrong decision on a question of law and no other material irregularities in the trial.
“We also considered that a new trial would still mean that the confessional statement and the ROI could not be relied on to support a verdict.”