If at first you don’t succeed, try again was the theme of the case against 35-year-old Ignacio Villanueva in the Magistrates Court on Friday, April 24, 2009. Villanueva appeared before Magistrate Albert Hoare to face a charge of aggravated assault upon 53-year-old Lincoln Lewis.
The charge stemmed from an incident that Lewis reported to police on February 27, 2009. He said that he was standing on Racecourse Street at about 5:30 p.m. when Villanueva walked up to him and hit him in the face with a .38 revolver. According to Lewis, Villanueva did not say a word to him before the attack.
In court on Friday, Villanueva tried desperately to alert the magistrate on some very important information. When he was allowed to speak, he informed Magistrate Hoare that he had appeared in front of Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-Mckenzie on March 27 to answer to that same charge. The Chief Magistrate struck out the case and he was cleared of the charges. Magistrate Hoare said that he had no knowledge of the previous case; therefore, he adjourned the case until Wednesday, April 29. The magistrate said that he would look into the situation concerning the previous case. Therefore, the case was adjourned, but since it was an offense committed with a firearm, Villanueva was to be remanded at the Hattieville Prison until his next court appearance.
