The Sint Maarten Court of Appeal confirmed last week the sentencing of brothers Hashantley Fulgencio Martina, 28, and Hensley Hilarion Martina, 24, who had been convicted of the murder of Francis Brunache at Hope Estate on January 24, 2017 At first instance, the court had sentenced the two individuals to 25 years in prison.
Francis Brunache had been shot in his car by several bullets fired by a semi-automatic weapon, in what appears to be a drug-related case. At the end of last week, the judges of the Court of Appeal confirmed the 25-year sentence pronounced against Hashantley. At the time of the murder, he was on probation for possession of drugs and theft of a car. In this case, he had been sentenced, on the day of the murder of Francis Brunache, to 80 hours of community service and to one year suspended imprisonment. A penalty in addition to 25 years for murder. Her brother Hensley's sentence was reduced to 22 years. The Court found that it was proven that the two suspects planned and carried out the liquidation of Francis Brunache.
Another individual, Kathron "Cuchi" Fortune from Grenada, was suspected of having participated in this shooting. But the attorney general said last March that there was not enough evidence and did not see fit to prosecute Fortune in the context of this case. But Fortune had been sentenced to life in prison last June as part of another murder case. He had killed two men of Dominican origin in a hotel room at the Simpson Bay Resort in December 2016. _RM
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