Damean ‘Deebo’ Seymour walked free from court Tuesday, after a jury was unconvinced that he fired a gunshot that came within millimetres of killing Adolphus Myrie on 17 February.
The all female jury took just over an hour to return not guilty verdicts for the charges of attempted murder, wounding with intent and possession of an unlicensed firearm.
The Crown argued that Seymour went to Tigris Street in George Town, humiliated and out for revenge, after being beaten up by Myrie and his friend, Kevin Moore, earlier on the evening of 17 February at a George Town bar.
Not long after the fight, Myrie was travelling as a passenger in a car down Tigris Street with Moore, when a gunman opened fire on the vehicle.
Grand Court Justice Charles Quin said it was ‘miraculous’ that Myrie survived the shooting, after a bullet skimmed the top of his head. He required stiches, but suffered no major damage.
Seymour showed little emotion as the jury read its verdicts, but he flashed a grin as he turned from the jury to be taken to holding cells below the court house.
He walked free from the courthouse later Tuesday afternoon after Chief Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale granted him bail on charges of disorderly conduct and threatening violence relating to an incident at the Cayman Brac airport in August 2007. Senior Crown Counsel Trevor Ward did not oppose the bail application.
It is the third time in four years Seymour has escaped conviction over gun related crimes.
A judge in 2004 ruled he had no case to answer after being brought to court charged with the George Town murder of Joseph Alexander Williams.
In February 2007, a Grand Court jury found him not guilty of robbery and firearms charges for his alleged involvement in the robbery of the Foster’s Republix Supermarket in West Bay.
The 17 February shooting was the first of two brushes with death for Myrie this year.
On 31 May a gunman opened fire on him and another man as they sat on a veranda on School House Road in George Town. Myrie was shot four times – but survived – in the apparent drive by shooting. Lance Myles, 20, of George Town has been charged with attempted murder in that case.
Both Myrie and Moore testified in court that Seymour was the gunman at Tigris Street on 17 February.
They said they drove past Seymour as he stood in a yard on Tigris Street just after dropping a friend off in the area. Seymour had a cup in one hand and something hidden behind his back in the other. Moments later they saw him walk onto the road and open fire on the car from behind, they said.
But Defence Attorney, Peter Kyte QC argued that the men only got a fleeting glance of the gunman in poor light. He questioned the reliability of the two, pointing out that they first told police they did not know who shot at them and had given conflicting accounts of how many bullets they heard fired.
Seymour was arrested the following morning and forensic tests in the US later found traces of gunshot residue on a pocket Bible he was carrying.
But Michael Martinez, the forensics expert that received the bible at Texas’ Bexar County Criminal Investigations Laboratory, told the court that police in Cayman did not seal the exhibit properly, allowing the defence team to argue that there was a risk the evidence may have been contaminated or interfered with.
Mr. Martinez dismissed the possibility of contamination or interference, describing the breached seal as minor.
The existence of gunshot residue on the Bible meant that it came into contact or in proximity with a firearm, or that gunshot residue was transferred onto it, but it did not prove that Seymour fired the bullets at the car, Mr. Martinez explained.
Seymour told the court he was dropped off in the Tigris Street area and first went to the yard of his father’s house to clean up from the fight. He then went to a nearby friend’s house on the street, but he denied he had anything to do with the shooting. He said he was with two friends at the house when he heard the gunshots.
Seymour could give no explanation why he was dropped off in the Tigris Street area rather than at his house in Savannah, at his girlfriend’s house, or in Bodden Town, where the other friends in the car were travelling to.
He said he neither asked to be left there, nor did his friends ask him where he wanted to be taken; he said they probably took him there because they knew that he ‘frequents’ that area and the nearby Zodiac Club.
Crown Counsel Andrew Radcliffe QC described his explanation for being in the area as an ‘absurd lie’.
After hearing the gunshots, Seymour said he became scared for his life and later went with one of the friends to a house in Bodden Town for the night.
Police descended on the Bodden Town residence early the next morning to arrest Seymour after receiving information on the shooting. Two officers stationed at the back of the house said they saw Seymour begin to climb through a rear window, but went back inside when he saw police.
Seymour denied that he was trying to escape. He said he was checking to see whether the officers surrounding the house were real policemen and not pretend ones.
Fight
Witnesses said the bar fight took place after Myrie approached Seymour at the venue with an open ratchet knife, asking him ‘why is it that everywhere I go, people say you want to kill me?’ Witness said Myrie then threw liquor in Seymour’s face.
Seymour said he was cut on the face, chest and was punched in the face, but he denied that he beared any ill-will toward Myrie over the brawl, saying ‘it was just a fight’, and that he never paid it much mind.
Gun fight
Mr. Kyte argued that Myrie and Moore went to Tigris Street prepared for a gunfight. Gunshot residue was found inside the car they were in and the vehicle was later removed from the George Town Hospital not long after the two arrived there to get treatment for Myrie.
Moore said he didn’t ask anyone to collect the car but later found out that his brother took it from the hospital. He assumed his brother took the car after hearing about the shooting.
Mr. Kyte said Moore had the car moved to dispose of guns inside before police arrived – a charge that Moore rejected.
While two bullets hit the car, some witnesses reported hearing more shots that night.
One man that lives in the area said he heard one shot, followed by six or seven more in quick succession. Another man said he heard one shot followed by ‘six or more’.
No guns were ever recovered in the case.
Seymour was directed to return to court on 8 December to face the disorderly conduct and threatening violence charges.
Mr. Kyte was instructed by Attorney Phillip McGhee during the trial, while Mr. Radcliffe was assisted by Senior Crown Counsel Trevor Ward.
Compass reporter Carol Winker contributed to this story.
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