By PAVEL BAILEY
IT WAS determined yesterday that there is sufficient evidence to proceed in a trial of a former Solomon’s Fresh Market employee accused of stealing $342.50 worth of groceries.
Vashnique Rolle, 28, of Pinewood Gardens, is on trial before Senior Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
In her latest court appearance Rolle’s lawyer, Alleecia Delancey, unsuccessfully submitted that there was insufficient evidence to convict her for stealing the grocery items. Delancey submitted that there was no evidence to prove that Rolle stole the items alone.
Delancey further suggested that her client unwittingly helped the actual thieves, two unidentified male suspects previously shown in security footage in court, who had actually stolen the items due to a cashier system error.
When asked by the magistrate if the defence accepted the fact that the stolen items were transferred from one end of the cashier’s belt to the next, Delancey said yes but she stood by her assertion that a system error was at fault for theft. She maintained that Rolle had properly swiped her card to complete the transaction even though the system failed to properly cash the items.
Prosecutor Inspector Timothy Bain argued that the theft was the result of the defendant failing to use the Point of Service (POS) Terminal correctly. He went on to recall how Darrell Mitchell the AML Foods Security Manager had previously testified that all the store’s operating systems were operating correctly.
The prosecution then submitted that the accused had the opportunity to face the allegations directly but refused to do so at the time. He further said that there is compelling evidence for Rolle to answer for the charge of stealing by means of employment to which the Magistrate agreed.
As such Rolle’s case was adjourned to May 16 for her to gather witnesses to speak in her defence.
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