Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL) Copyright: 2005 The Palm Beach Post Contact: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333 Author: Larry Keller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer MURDER CHARGE DROPPED FOR LACK OF WITNESSES WEST PALM BEACH -- West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach police aren't the only ones stymied in solving killings because witnesses either won't come forward or won't talk. Assistant State Attorney James Martz dropped a charge of second-degree murder with a firearm on Monday against a reputed drug dealer when he could not find more than a half-dozen of his witnesses as the case was about to go to trial. The development was especially frustrating to Martz because he narrowly missed convicting Sherly Petit-Frere, 29, of the killing of Simon Sands in an earlier trial last December that ended with the jury deadlocked 5- 1 in favor of conviction. "We've got a good case," Martz said moments after Circuit Judge Jack Cook granted his request to not prosecute Petit-Frere. "But without the witnesses to the crime, we can't prosecute. People need to understand, law enforcement can't do it by themselves." That's been a refrain of police who have had a tough time solving a rash of killings in the past year in poor, black neighborhoods in northern West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach, where there is strong distrust of police. Petit-Frere was arrested in March 2003 after Sands, 33, was shot once in the head outside an apartment at the Stonybrook subsidized housing complex at 1555 Martin Luther King Blvd. in Riviera Beach, severing his spinal cord. The following circumstances led to the shooting, according to police: Sands, Petit-Frere and his brother, Samuel, all were drug dealers. A woman nicknamed "Psycho" assisted Sands, handling his drug cash. When the woman learned that the Petit-Frere brothers were planning to rob her, Sands confronted Samuel Petit-Frere and they argued. Bad blood simmered througout the day and at 10:15 that night, Sherly Petit-Frere returned to an apartment at Stonybrook where Sands was. One witness said he was accompanied by two other men. "It don't have to be like this," Sands was heard to say. Then a single shot was fired and Sherly Petit-Frere was seen walking away and getting in a car. Getting the people who saw that to testify is Martz's problem. "This is classic," he said. "I get witnesses all the time that duck it. People standing together are stronger than any individual charged with a crime. The community needs to make a stand." Monday's development doesn't return Petit-Frere to the streets. Because he's a Haitian citizen, there is an immigration hold on him. Meanwhile, Martz still has the option of filing the case against Petit- Frere anew. Will he? "I just don't know." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin