Two men and a 17-year-old go on trial after 'stabbing wealthy American couple to death in their Caribbean holiday home'

Three men are set to go on trial accused of the murders of a wealthy American couple killed in their holiday home of the Caribbean Island of St Maarten.

Michael King, 53, and his wife Thelma, 57, from South Carolina, were last September found stabbed to death in their beachfront apartment on the Dutch Caribbean territory.

The suspects - identified only by their initials - are J.J.W, who was arrested on St Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, J.C.M., who is just 17, and 28-year-old M.K.J., who prosecutors say has confessed to the crime.



Murdered: Michael and Thelma King were found murdered in their holiday home on the Caribbean Island of Saint Maarte. Three men will tomorrow go on trial accused of their murders




Horrifying: The South Carolina couple, who were starting a rum business on the island of Saint Maarten, were found in their beachfront home with several stab wounds. Thelma King was found bound to a chair

The trial, which begins tomorrow, is expected to last just two days, but the judge is not expected to issue a ruling until early next month.

If found guilty, the three suspects face life in jail.

Successful entrepreneurs, the Kings owned several homes, including their property on St Maarten, and owned numerous restaurants there.


They were found dead on September 21 last year after friends on the island became suspicious when they didn't respond to calls.

Mr King's brother, Todd, told CNN he and his entire family will be travelling to St Maarten to attent the trial.

'Everybody's coming,' he told the U.S. news network. 'Everybody loved Michael, he was just one of the nicest guys you would ever meet.'








Slain: Local businessman Michael King, right, and his wife, Thelma, right, were killed at their beachfront holiday home; their bodies were found with fatal stab wounds on Friday, September 21, 2012


Taco Stein, St Maarten's Solicitor General, said the killings appeared to be the result of a burglary that went 'out of hand'.

According to local officials, the couple were repeatedly stabbed. Mrs King was discovered bound to a chair. 'I'm confident they [the suspects] will be found guilty,' Mr Stein said.

But Brenda Brooks, the lawyer representing J.C.M., the youngest of the accused, told CNN she thinks the prosecution's theory 'doesn't add up.'

'I don't believe it, that these guys kind of went on a joyride with someone else's car, and then went out drinking and ended up coincidentally by the Kings, and it was initially said to be a robbery and they end up killing the couple,' she said.

'I think there is something else to that story.'



Tragic: Local restaurant owner Topper Daboul described Thelma King, far left, and Michael King, rear right, as 'beautiful' people who 'probably had to hang their wings up at night'

The killings have shocked the close-knit ex-pat community on St Maarten, which has a population of just under 38,000 and a land mass of only 13 square miles.

Terry Tamblyn of Isle of Palms, South Carolina, who was a partner with King in St Maarten rental property, said last year: 'It's beyond me. It was such a shock.

'I can't figure any reason. It was crazy to me. Everybody loved Mike and Thelma.'

Mr Tamblyn added: 'He'd give you the shirt off his back. They were just the greatest people in the world. I can't think of any enemies.'

Mr King was a retired insurance executive who later started a successful printing business that he sold, Mr Tamblyn said. He said Mr King owned a couple of restaurants on the island and was about to start a new spiced-rum business.



Holiday home: The couple, both in their 50s, were found dead at their home in the Ocean Club Resort in Cupecoy. The entrepreneurs ran several restaurants on the island and were starting a new rum business

Local restaurant owner Topper Daboul said that he was a friend of the couple and was building a rum factory with them.


'These two people probably had to hang their wings up at night. That's how beautiful they were,' Mr Daboul said. 'Their life was pretty successful ... They had oodles of dollars. They had everything they ever wanted in life.'


Mr Daboul, speaking just after the Kings' bodies were found, said he last saw Mr King on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 19.


'I knew some other friends had drinks with them that night,' he said. 'We weren't able to reach them on Thursday. We called all day on Thursday. The fact that he didn't call made me a little suspicious, but not a lot.'


Mr Daboul said he drove over to the King's home at the Ocean Club Resort in Cupecoy on Friday, September 21, and banged on the door.


He said he asked a person who had been on the premises at the time to climb over a fence and see if they saw anyone in the house. Mr Daboul said the person told him that he saw a dead man leaning over a chair.


Following the murders, the island's hospitality and trade association released a statement expressing outrage at the attack and offering condolences to friends and family of the couple.


'St. Maarten is a small, diverse and close knit community. This tragedy pains everyone in the community deeply,' the statement said.


The Kings' South Carolina, Mount Pleasant condominium is at the end of a cul-de-sac in Tolers Cove on the Intracoastal Waterway next to the Ben Sawyer Bridge. Neighbour Harry Murray said everyone loved the Kings.