About 30 passengers were huddled in the small boat on the night of Dec. 5, 2010, when the alleged captain, Roro Edourne, ignored instructions from the United States Coast Guard to halt, and instead took off at full speed, prosecutors said.
When the boat struck a rock off Nora Hazel Point near Brandywine Bay, it began to take on water and eventually sank.
“We say there were 30 persons on the boat,” Senior Crown Counsel Valston Graham said at the start of a trial in High Court yesterday. “Some were retrieved from the water alive, some were retrieved from the water dead, and some were never seen again.”
Mr. Edourne and the alleged first mate of the vessel, Renold Plaisimond, sat in the defendants’ dock as Mr. Graham laid out the Crown’s case, which jointly charges the two men with eight counts of manslaughter and one count of smuggling migrants.
“As the evidence informs, you will find that they committed an unlawful and dangerous act,” Mr. Graham said. “Or you will find they were grossly negligent.”
An interpreter relayed the opening statement to Mr. Edourne, who is representing himself in the trial, and Mr. Plaisimond, who is represented by Patrick Thompson. Senior Crown Counsel Christilyn Benjamin appeared beside Mr. Graham for the Crown.
See the Oct. 25, 2012 edition for full coverage.