F
our of six trials result in not guilty verdicts
There were seven trials for murder in Cayman’s courts during 2011. One was trial by jury, while defendants in the other six elected to be tried by judge alone.
The trial by jury resulted in a guilty verdict. There was also a guilty verdict in one trial by judge alone. In four trials by judge alone, six defendants were found not guilty. In a seventh trial, both prosecution and de
fence completed their cases, but the judge had not given his verdict by the time this report was compiled.
JURY’S GUILTY VERDICT
In April,
William David Martinez McLaughlin was found guilty of murdering Brian Rankine Carter in 2008. It was his second trial by jury and second guilty verdict. Justice Charles Quin presided after the Court of Appeal set aside the previous verdict and ordered a new trial. Brian, 20, died of multiple chop wounds to his face, head and arms. His body was found lifeless and naked in a parking lot off McField Lane in George Town on the night of Friday, 16 May 2008. McLaughlin’s co-worker, who was sentenced for being an accessory after the fact, said he had driven the other men to the area and then Brian had gone off to obtain drugs for McLaughlin. What he brought back apparently was not enough and McLaughlin attacked him. The main weapon was a machete, kept with work tools in the van they were in.
TEEN NOT GUILTY
In June, Justice Quin found Jordan Manderson not guilty of murdering Marcos Duran in March 2010. He chastised the teen for lying about how he himself had come to be shot that same night; his lies had wasted valuable time and resources in police investigations, the judge pointed out. Manderson initially said he had been shot in the leg while walking near his home in West Bay. Later he admitted being at the murder scene, but claimed he had gone there to buy drugs. Mr. Duran, a numbers seller, was fatally shot after coming out of a customer’s apartment.
Two different sizes of bullets or bullet parts were found at the scene
but no guns were recovered.
NOT GUILTY, AGAIN
In July, Justice Algernon Smith handed down a verdict of not guilty in the trial of
Josue Carillo-Perez. He had been accused of murdering Martin Gareau, the Canadian national whose body was found at his residence near the sea in Beach Bay after the May holiday weekend in 2008. He had previously been found not guilty in a judge-alone trial, but the Crown appealed that verdict and the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial on the basis that the judge had misdirected himself as to the standard of proof. The court ordered a retrial. Mr. Gareau died from both sharp force wounds and blunt trauma injuries, including a depressed fracture of the skull of about five inches. No weapon was found, although police searched the house and surrounding area.
In his reasons for judgment, Justice Smith noted that in any case where the Prosecution relies substantially on fingerprint evidence, failure by the print examiner to make notes during the examination and failure to have that examination verified by two independent examiners will render print evidence unreliable. He said both Prosecution and Defence were adamant that the case rested on two bloody fingerprints found on an interior door of the house.
THREE NOT GUILTY
Also in July, Justice Karl Harrison found Robert Aaron Crawford, Jose Guadalupe Sanchez and Roger Deward Bush not guilty of murdering Alrick Peddie. Mr. Peddie was shot in a West Bay yard on the afternoon of 24 March 2010. The judge found he could not place significant reliance on the one eyewitness to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt as to his account.
The Crown brought evidence of Crawford’s DNA being on the driver’s door of the two-door car used in the shooting, and of gunshot residue found in the back seat, where the eyewitness said he had seen Crawford sitting. The judge said he agreed with the defence position that the DNA was not “time specific” and there was evidence that the car had not been cleaned inside for quite a while. No firearm was recovered.
NOT GUILTY OF BOY’S MURDER
In August, Justice Howard Cooke began hearing evidence in the trial of Devon Anglin, who was accused of murdering Jeremiah Barnes. Jeremiah, four, was fatally shot while in the back seat of a car driven by his father. The judge said the evidence of Jeremiah’s parents was unreliable. He preferred the evidence of a pump attendant at the gas station where the shooting occurred because, he indicated, that witness would have no interests to serve.
The judge concluded that the effect of the identification evidence was that the Crown had not adduced evidence of any probative value which would permit him to look at any supporting evidence. That supporting evidence would have included the testimony of a CCTV analyst, who showed the court enlarged still photos from the station’s CCTV camera.
The Crown has since applied to appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal.
GUILTY IN SHOOTING DEATH
In September,
Leonard Antonio Ebanks was found guilty of the murder of Tyrone Burrell, which took place on the evening of 8 September 2010 in West Bay. No one gave evidence of seeing the shooting, but one woman said she saw Ebanks seconds before she heard the sound of a gun. Another woman said she saw Ebanks seconds after hearing what she thought was a firecracker. Justice Quin said both women were honest and reliable witnesses. He described the first woman as courageous for coming forward after Ebanks told her he had killed “the boy” and had shown her a .38 handgun. Expert evidence showed that Tyrone was killed by a single .38 bullet to the back of the head.
No firearm was recovered.
VERDICT AWAITED
The final murder trial of the year was that of
Devon Anglin, accused of shooting Carlo Webster at the Next Level Night Club in September 2009. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie heard the evidence and visited the scene. At the conclusion of speeches on 15 December, the judge said he would take time to consider his verdict. No verdict had been announced by press deadline.
Although there were an estimated 300 people in the club at the time of the shooting, only person gave evidence of seeing it. This person and one other were granted anonymity and gave their evidence from a remote location with their voiced electronically altered and no one by the judge seeing them. Evidence also included CCTV from 11 cameras inside and outside the nightclub. No firearm was recovered.
MANSLAUGHTER PLEA ACCEPTED
Steve Madiho Brown, 36, was charged with murdering Jack Kennedy Forbes in Bodden Town on 1 October 2010. In July his plea of guilty to manslaughter was accepted. Justice Harrison sentenced him to seven years imprisonment. The plea was on the basis of provocation. Cause of death for Forbes, 49, was blunt head trauma after Brown stomped on Forbes’ head about 14 times.
The defence said Brown had been provoked both verbally and physically, with Forbes stabbing Brown twice in the abdomen; both injuries required stitches or sutures.
APPEALS IN 2011
Three men found guilty by a jury in 2010 of the murder of Omar Samuels appealed their convictions. The Court of Appeal allowed the
appeals and set aside the convictions of Patrick Elbert McField, Osbourne Wilfred Douglas and Brandon Leslie Ebanks. The main argument was that Justice Quin erred in law when he failed to withdraw the case from the jury following defence submissions of “no case to answer” after the prosecution had finished presenting all of its evidence. The men’s attorneys said the Crown’s two main witnesses gave a version of events inconsistent and irreconcilable with the physical evidence at the scene of the shooting.
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