St. Maarten News – This afternoon Kevin Maurice C. will stand trial for the airport road hit and run that took the life of Rotary President Ramesh Manek on April 16 of last year. The prosecution has charged the 32-year-old defendant with manslaughter and, if that does not hold up, with wrongful death.
On April 16, 2015, Manek was jogging along the Airport Road at 7 a.m. when the Hummer C. was driving fatally hit him. The prosecution says that C. was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, but his attorney Paula Jansen said that her client was sober and that he had started drinking afterwards.
After he hit Manek, the defendant went home but later he turned himself in to the police.
During a pro forma hearing that took place already in July of last year, the prosecutor’s office asked for an opinion from a pathologist of the Dutch Forensic Institute NFI about the possible speed of the Hummer when it hit the victim.
Judge Paulides had a more practical idea that morning: “If we know the scope of the surveillance cameras at the car rental companies along that road and we look at the number of seconds it takes the car to pass, it must be possible to calculate the speed,” she said.
The judge ruled at the time that the Hummer that belongs to the defendant’s father, would not be given back until there is a verdict. The prosecution considers the Hummer a murder weapon.
The family of Manek will be allowed to make a statement at the trial about the impact the loss of their loved one has had on their lives. C.’s attorney objected against this, but the court allowed it: “I find it in the interest of the victim’s relatives to do this,” Judge Maria Paulides ruled last year.
The family will not be allowed to make statements about the facts or about the defendant.
Airport Road hit and run in court this afternoon
