Horse Path resident Jeremy Williams pleaded guilty to burgling Buck’s Food Market in Virgin Gorda in early June, but he claimed not to have done the same to a nearby electronics store.

 

“If I can break in to Buck’s, how can I be in the other place at the same time?” Mr. Williams interjected while Magistrate Ayanna Baptiste-DaBreo read the charges. “I don’t even know what that other place is.”

According to Crown Counsel O’Neal Simpson, a security guard at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour heard an alarm sounding at Kaunda’s Kysy Tropix and saw a man dressed in black fleeing towards Buck’s Food Market.

The guard went to Kaunda’s and saw that it had been burgled, Mr. Simpson said.

When the guard looked around, he found a stainless steel chain on the floor by the entrance of the store, added the prosecutor.

Later that morning, around 9 a.m., the supervisor of Buck’s arrived to find that it, too, had been burgled, according to allegations read in court.

The supervisor called the police, Mr. Simpson said. When police arrived, they reviewed security camera footage that showed a “tall, dark and skinny” man rummaging through the building, according to the prosecutor.

Based on the camera footage and other information, Mr. Simpson said, police arrested Mr. Williams on suspicion of burglary.

Mr. Simpson explained that the defendant denied the allegations during his police interview, but shortly thereafter requested to come clean and admit to the charges.

According to Ms. Baptiste-DaBreo, Mr. Williams had been placed on a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to burglary in front of Magistrate Dr. Velon John in July.

However, that guilty plea was in relation to an incident that occurred after the Virgin Gorda break-ins, so the suspended sentence was not automatically activated, the judge explained.

Mr. Williams’ trial for the Kaunda’s burglary is set to begin on Nov. 24, and he will also be sentenced for the Buck’s burglary on that date. He will remain in custody until then.