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Mills, Benjamin guilty of Belvin’s murder

Two men face life behind bars today for the fatal supermarket shooting of Haile Outerbridge and Ricco Furbert.

Romano Mills was found guilty of the premeditated murder of both men inside the Belvin’s Variety store on Happy Valley Road by a jury late yesterday afternoon after trial.

He showed no emotion as the jury returned its verdicts.

A second defendant, Gariko Benjamin, had pleaded guilty to two charges of murder three weeks into the trial, although jurors had not been told of his change of pleas.

Both Benjamin, 24, and Mills, 30, have been remanded in custody until a sentencing date is set at next month’s arraignments session.

The pair, who both come from Sandys, are the second and third men to be convicted of murder in relation to the fatal shooting in January 2013.

In June 2015, Christoph Duerr and Le-Veck Roberts were unanimously found guilty of the premeditated murder of Mr Outerbridge and Mr Furbert and jailed for life.

Duerr, who was described as the armourer who stored and supplied the gun used in the murders, and Roberts were told they would spend a minimum of 25 years behind bars before they could be considered for parole.

However, in May Duerr successfully appealed against his murder convictions on two legal grounds and the Court of Appeal replaced the charges with being an accessory after the fact to murder.

He remains behind bars and continues to serve the ten-year sentence he was given after admitting possessing a firearm in connection to the same case.

Throughout both trials prosecutors maintained that Roberts was the gunman who opened fire at Mr Outerbridge and Mr Furbert inside the shop.

Meanwhile, they said that Benjamin and Mills were outside the store on motorbikes at the time of the killing and knew that Roberts had entered the store with a firearm.

On the evening of January 23, 2013, Mr Outerbridge and Mr Furbert had been shopping at Belvin’s when Mr Furbert opened the door to leave.

He ran back inside when he saw the group of men on bikes outside shouting, “They’re outside. They’ve got guns.”

Both he and Mr Outerbridge ran to a storeroom at the back of the shop. Security cameras showed a figure wearing a black, full-face helmet and blue clothes walk to the storeroom door with a firearm in his right hand.

Roberts was arrested by armed officers on January 25, 2013 after police received a report that the vehicle stolen from Curving Avenue on the night of the shooting was on the property. Tests later revealed a single particle of gunshot residue on his hand, along with a smattering of particles associated with the discharge of a firearm. He was released on bail and left the country but was later extradited back to the island to face the charges.