Tuesday is D-Day for Kapris and gang

National, Normal
Source:

The National – Thursday, December 16, 2010

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
NEXT Tuesday is D-Day for 14 people accused of being involved in the Madang Bank South Pacific branch armed robbery of K2 million in 2008.
The Madang National Court yesterday set the date for the decision following the prosecution’s submissions to Justice David Cannings that 13 of the alleged offenders should be punished while the other Kia Warren had no case to answer.
Senior state prosecutor Kaluwin Pondros told the court that most of the evidence during the trial might have been circumstantial as suggested by the defence but there was no doubt that most of the co-accused were involved in the robbery, either directly or indirectly.
“That all 13 did either conspired, aided or enabled, separately, towards the commissioning of the robbery.”
Pondros said that witness Timon Kataka, an accomplice whose evidence should not be given any weight, spilled the beans on the group’s travel from Finschhafen where they picked him up to Lae and the events prior to and after the robbery.
He said that major robbery suspect William Nanua Kapris, identified as such by witnesses, was indeed the mastermind of the robbery which took place on July 5, 2008.
The court heard that after escaping to Lae, Kapris and his gang were met by the other co-accused named.
It heard that from the Bumbu River at Gets Compound, Kapris, the boat skipper and the rest were taken to two different locations – a rented house at 2-Mile settlement outside Lae and another at Second Street.
The court also heard that one of the two women accused, Isabella Kivare, travelled to Lae ahead of Kapris’ group to organise temporary accommodation at 2-Mile.
The court was told that she had left Lae after the robbery, lied about where she was from to the people she rented the houses from and gave K1,000 wrapped in a Stayfree packet to the daughter of the owner.
The other woman Joyce Maima, the court was told, hired a vehicle that was used by one suspect and that she had a personal relationship with another suspect Johnny Gumaira, who orchestrated movement of K129,500 in a suitcase and K4,600, all in K2 notes with BSP seal intact.
The prosecution said this pointed to the fact that both women aided or enabled the crimes as well as receiving stolen goods.
Voir dire claims by other accused, Peter Alan Popo, Jacob Peningi Okimbari and Colin Masilo,  had been upheld by the court rendering initial confessions as being useless as evidence.
Other accused, Kito Aso, Bonny Solomon, Daniel Inanei, Elvis Bala Aka, Gumaira and Bobby Selan, though being named by various witnesses, did not have definitive elements linking them to their said charges.