Case Three
Charge: Murder and Theft
Number of defendants: 1
Case:
The defendant was an upstanding member of the community. He had all he could possibly want, at least that is what he thought. He met an old friend one day who showed him his prize jewel collection; the defendant coveted what wasn’t his and hatched a plan to get what he wanted.
The community was in the middle of a small crisis as floods were threatening their village. The village was on a hill and the men of the village had been driving down the hill to take sand bags to build a defence for the village and our defendant was responsible for coordinating the effort. The defendant sent his ‘friend’ to help with the sand bag effort in a van that had no brakes; the defendant had cut the brake leads. The route to the sand bag wall was downhill through winding lanes. The ‘friend’ crashed half way down the hill; he hit a tree and died from head injuries.
As soon as the defendant knew that his ‘friend’ had been killed he went to the house and took the jewels saying that he would look after the jewels in a way his ‘friend’ would have wanted.
The defendant has not made any defence for himself and has not owned up to his crime.