Guyanese Chetram Karan was recently sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison on burglary charges after he fled during his trial at the Queens Supreme Court, in New York.
According to a Times Ledger report, the Queens District Attorney office suspects that Karan may have absconded to Guyana after he and an accomplice fled during jury selection for their trial.
As a result, Karan, 25, and co-accused Vishwa Nabi, 27, both of Jamaica, Queens, were convicted in absentia of burglary, conspiracy, criminal possession of stolen property and possession of burglar’s tools, following a jury trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Leslie Leach.
Karan was subsequently sentenced in his absence on April 29th to nine years in prison.
Nabi, the report said, was returned to the jurisdiction by his bail bondsman last month and was sentenced on April 2nd to 11 years in prison.
“The defendants were believed to be serial burglars who targeted homes throughout Queens and Nassau Counties, terrorized homeowners by their unlawful intrusions and stole their valued possessions,” the report quoted Queens District Attorney Richard Brown as saying.
According to the report, testimony at the trial revealed that the vehicle that the defendants were using, a 2006 BMW, had been implicated in prior burglaries that occurred in Queens. As a result, surveillance was conducted on the vehicle.
It said court records also revealed that in February, 2013, the NYPD’s Burglary Larceny Apprehension Surveillance Team observed Karan driving the BMW, with Nabi in the vehicle, in New Hyde Park. When the BMW stopped in a New Hyde Park neighbourhood, Nabi got out of the vehicle and he was later seen walking to a darkened private residence.
The report added that while police watched, Nabi disappeared for a moment and a short time later a light went on in a second-floor room of the residence.
Later, he was seen walking down the driveway from the house to a corner where the BMW pulled up and he entered the vehicle. In addition, it was noted that other police officers had observed Karan acting as a lookout and conducting counter-surveillance by driving slowly up and down the residential street in the immediate area.
The report said the criminal complaint filed by the District Attorney alleged that after the BMW drove back into Queens, police stopped the vehicle and recovered a crowbar on the front passenger floor, jewellery on the center console and a black-and-white zebra-print case on the front passenger seat, as well as jewellery on the back seat and under the back seat cushion, multiple pairs of gloves and other miscellaneous items. Further, it said upon returning to the crime scene, police saw a side window open and noted that the inside of the residence had been ransacked.
The residence’s owner later identified the black-and-white case as belonging to a family member and said the case had been in the residence when he left earlier in the day, according to the criminal complaint.
