Two-time convicted murderer Fredrick Francis will have to wait another week before he learns his fate since his sentencing hearing date has been put off. <\/p>\n
A Freeport jury found him guilty back in August of the 2005 murder of Austrian visitors Bernhard Bolzano and Baroness Barbara Frein von Perfall in Bimini. <\/p>\n
The six-woman, six-man jury also brought back a guilty verdict for the rape and armed robbery charges. <\/p>\n
It took them just under three hours to deliberate. <\/p>\n
The couple was discovered in their hotel room at the Bimini Blue Water Resort on July 23, 2005. They were shot at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun. <\/p>\n
Bolzano, 35, was shot in the back and Perfall, 32, in her chest. The maid found them hours later. <\/p>\n
Francis denied ever committing the crime and told the court in a statement from the prisoner’s dock, he was coerced by police into a confession, participating in the video taping of his written statement and instructed on how to show how the crime occurred. <\/p>\n
The prosecutor will be seeking the death penalty on both murders. <\/p>\n
The defence requested both a probation report and that Francis undergo psychiatric evaluation. <\/p>\n
Francis’ sentencing had initially been deferred for six weeks pending a sentencing hearing on Monday, September 18. The venue has since been changed. <\/p>\n
The 24-year old Bimini resident is now set to hear his fate in the capital on Wednesday, September 27 when he will be entitled to call witnesses on his behalf. <\/p>\n
(Allegedly corrupt) Justice Stephen Isaacs presided over the trial. Attorney SandraDee Gardiner acted on behalf of The Crown and Attorney Carlson Shurland represented the defence.<\/p>\n
By LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior Freeport News Reporter<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sentencing is delayed for the man who some feel was railroaded into confessing to what may have been an Austrian mob hit covered up by the Bahamian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243417\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}