FRENCH QUARTER--Latoya Flanders (31) who was gunned down in front of her home on Mullet Fish Road close to Coralita Road on Thursday is said to have been the girlfriend of notorious convicted criminal Urvin Laurence Wawoe (34).

 

  The two is said to have a child together, but this could not be ascertained. Wawoe is currently sitting out a 40 month sentence in a jail in the Netherlands. 

 

  In July of this year, the Joint Court of Justice sentenced Wawoe to forty months for possession of quantities of cocaine and marijuana and firearm possession. Wawoe, said to be a member of the “No Limit Soldiers” gang, a criminal organisation held responsible for the murder of Pueblo Soberano politician Helmin Wiels in Curaçao, had appealed his conviction by the Court of First Instance. In May 2014, he was sentenced to six years for cocaine and firearm possession and membership in a criminal organisation.

 

  In his July 2015 appeal hearing Solicitor-General Taco Stein had recommended the Court to sentence Wawoe to six years. One of the most renowned criminal lawyers in the Netherlands, Inez Weski, pleaded for her client’s full acquittal and immediate release.

 

  Wawoe had been held in detention in the Netherlands since November 3, 2014. He was flown out after his involvement in a violent incident at Pointe Blanche Prison in which fellow-inmate and “Vesuvius” case convict Carlos Richardson was seriously injured with a machete.

 

  The attack was said to have been made in defence of Wawoe, whom Richardson was said to have attacked with a firearm. Richardson was also transferred to a prison in the Netherlands.

 

  On September 17, 2013, Wawoe was caught in The Keys in the company of three others. A passing police patrol smelled a strong marijuana scent and decided to control three cars that were parked in the area. During the search, 3.8 kilos of cocaine, more than US $25,000 in cash, 30.5 grams of marijuana and two firearms were found.

 

  Wawoe’s phone contained pictures of a semi-automatic firearm, two pistols and cartridge holders. The rapper by profession claimed the weapons were used to make pictures for a CD-cover. “I did not know whether it concerned real weapons or fake,” he had told the Judge in April 2014.

 

  Wawoe has a history of convictions of violent crimes. In 2004, he was sentenced to 18 months for armed robbery in the Netherlands. Three years later, the Court in Curaçao sentenced him to three years for involvement with theft and firearm possession. In 2011, the Court of First Instance in St. Maarten imposed eight months for firearms.

 

  Wawoe denied any involvement in the alleged crimes, but Solicitor-General Stein remained convinced that Wawoe and other No Limit Soldiers had a drug-related appointment in The Keys.

 

  The Appeals Court in July rejected the defence’s pleadings to declare the Prosecutor’s case against Wawoe inadmissible. However, the Court did not find sufficient evidence to consider membership in a criminal organisation proven. Wawoe denied he had been the leader or a member in a criminal organisation.

 

  The Court also lowered the amount of cocaine found with the suspect to 2,714 grams. This amount was found in a black bag under a car in which Wawoe had been sitting before he was arrested.

 

  The Court found it proven that Wawoe had tried to conceal the bag when the police arrived on the scene. Defence statements that the black bag had been left behind by a Spanish-speaking man were dismissed.

 

  The remaining 1,130 grams of cocaine, which were found on the backseat of another car, could not be attributed to Wawoe, the Court stated.

 

  Wawoe had admitted that the marijuana, which was found in a Gucci shoulder bag, had been his.  In sentencing, the Appeals Court held it against the repeat offender that he had been found in possession of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana. He still received a lower sentence, because he was found guilty of fewer crimes.

 

  The killing of Flanders appeared to have been a deliberate assassination. Capitaine Emmanuel Maignan had told this newspaper after the incident that the victim had just stepped out of her car and was talking to a friend before going into her house on Mullet Fish Road, close to Coralita Road, when the gunman appeared and fired several shots at her. Witnesses reported seeing two suspects fleeing the scene on foot. The shooter is still at large. 

 

The Daily Herald