The interim judge at the Court of Permanent Attention for the province of Santo Domingo, Marlene Altagracia Guerrero, has sent Army First Lieutenant John Percival Matos to three months of preventive custody in the Najayo Jail.
Percival is accused of stealing an aircraft from the AILI (JBQ) airport in northern Santo Domingo during the early hours of Sunday. The judge also ordered the officer’s wife, Ginnssellys Halversoni Vasquez Amparo, who is accused of complicity, to report to the Santo Domingo District Attorney on a regular basis.
Before the hearing, Percival, handcuffed and with a calm demeanor, said that the accusations against him were in reprisal against his father, retired Air Force General Rafael Bienvenido Percival Pena.
Percival’s defense lawyer Candido Simon Polanco said that judicially speaking the accusation is of robbery and he argued that the law does not establish differences of punishment over the amount or the value of what was stolen. He said that robbery is a violation of Article 379 of the Penal Code which establishes a maximum sentence of between three and twenty years for aggravated robberies and 3 to 10 years for accomplices. “This is a crime of the fourth category (a class D felony in US parlance)” said Polanco. “This is a robbery of a vehicle,” said the defense lawyer, “and in the law, it makes no difference whether it is an airplane or a small motorcycle.” He insisted that, “if there is an accusation that can be made against his client, it is for simple robbery, because the theft of an aircraft is the same as any other theft.”
Before the hearing, when Percival was asked whether he had received US$350,000 for stealing the airplane, he answered that “let the Justice Department do its work.” His defense team also included Remberto Pichardo Juan and Josefina Juan. The Justice Department was represented by deputy prosecutors Jose Miguel Cabrera and Wilton Gutierrez.