San Juan man loses appeal for 2007 robbery, kidnapping in San Fernando

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

A San Juan man who was convicted of kidnapping, using an imitation gun, and robbing a woman in a taxi has lost his appeal.

On Thursday, Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Prakash Moosai, and Malcolm Holdip dismissed the appeal filed by Kevin Logan who complained about his trial.

On January 31, 2020, Logan was sentenced to four years in prison for two counts of kidnapping, four years for robbery with aggravation, and two years for using an imitation gun in the robbery which happened on January 21, 2007.

Logan and another man entered a Princes Town taxi at Library Corner, San Fernando, after Glenda Leben got in. She testified she was paying attention to the two because she was the only woman in the taxi.

It was the State’s case that when the taxi got to Manahambre Road, Logan and the other man announced a hold-up and one of them pulled out a long gun aimed it at the back of the driver.

Leben handed over her wallet, and Logan took out the $201 in it and gave the wallet back to her.

The men told the driver to turn the car around and the driver managed to pull into the Ste Madeleine police station. Logan and his accomplice fled but the police chased after them.

Twenty minutes later, two police vehicles returned and officers took Logan and the other man into the station. Leben identified Logan, telling the officers, “That’s them.”

The money, a phone, and what appeared to be a gun, were found on the other man when searched.

At the trial, the prosecution introduced bad-character evidence of Logan’s pending matter for kidnapping and robbery; the facts of which were similar to the 2007 incident.

Logan denied being part of the robbery, claiming he was picked up by police in the Croisee in San Juan and taken to the San Fernando police station, around the time the incident was said to have taken place at about 1 pm that day.

He called as a witness his mother who said her son left home at midday and she did not see him again until the next day in a cell at the police station.

His attorneys, public defenders Candace Nanton and Delicia Helwig-Robertson, argued that the judge did not give a proper direction to the jury on alibi evidence, giving the jury the false impression that Logan’s false alibi could have supported the prosecution’s case. The attorneys submitted it was a case of credibility.

Logan’s attorneys also faulted the identification evidence used in the case, saying it was the duty of the judge to assist the jury since Logan had disputed the alleged identification at the police station. They said the State’s case depended primarily on Leben’s visual identification of Logan and the judge did not give a proper direction on the inconsistencies in the evidence of the police officers who were involved in the arrest.

They also maintained the omission of the judge to point out the conflicts in the evidence of the prosecution was a grave error.

In their ruling, the judges dismissed the complaints saying it was their view the omissions of the judge were not fatal to Logan’s case.

Soo Hon said there were other elements in the prosecution’s case for the jury to arrive at the inescapable conclusion Logan was one of the two men who committed the crime.

In dismissing Logan’s appeal, they confirmed his sentences which will run from the date of his conviction on November 21, 2019.

Representing the State at the hearing of the appeal was special prosecutor Travers Sinanan.

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