The jury is expected to be sent out Thursday morning to consider its verdict in the murder trial of Raziel Jeffers.
The 29-year-old is accused of “masterminding” the robbery that led to the death of Marcos Duran, a numbers man who was shot on the doorstep of a home in West Bay in 2010.
Summing up the case on Wednesday afternoon, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie told the 11-woman, one-man jury that it did not matter that Jeffers had not pulled the trigger or that he was not present when the fatal shots were fired.
He said if they accepted the Crown’s case that Jeffers was involved in a joint plan to rob Mr. Duran, they could convict him of murder or manslaughter.
To convict on the higher charge of murder, he said, the jury must be convinced that the death of Mr. Duran was a “probable consequence” of the robbery plan. On the lesser charge of manslaughter, he said, the jury need only be satisfied that a reasonable person could have foreseen that robbing Mr. Duran with firearms was a dangerous act.
The case hinges on the testimony of Jeffers’s ex-girlfriend, Megan Martinez, who was the Crown’s key witness.
Justice Smellie told the jury if they did not believe her evidence, they could not convict Jeffers of either offense.
“Megan Martinez is the crucial witness for the Crown and you will need to be sure about her truthfulness and reliability as a witness before you can convict,” he said.
He added, “If you find he was not a party to the offense of robbery, then he would be guilty of no offense and would be entitled to be acquitted.”
He urged them to pay no heed to the fact that Jordan Manderson, who is alleged to have been one of Jeffers’s accomplices in the robbery, had been acquitted on murder charges at an earlier trial.
“The evidence, if you accept it, will implicate Jordan Manderson in the robbery and the murder,” he said.
“Jordan Manderson’s acquittal is irrelevant. We don’t know what evidence was or was not presented before Justice Quin,” he told the jury, urging them to infer nothing from the fact that Mr. Manderson had been cleared.
The Crown’s case, based largely on testimony from Ms. Martinez about admissions she says Jeffers made to her about his role in the robbery, is that Jeffers recruited some “soldiers,” including Manderson – known as Pinga – to rob Mr. Duran.
Prosecutors says Jeffers waited in the apartment in Maliwinas Way and tipped off his accomplices when the numbers man was leaving. The three masked gunmen confronted Mr. Duran on the stairs, a struggle ensued and a gun went off injuring Manderson, at which point one of the other robbers stepped in and shot Mr. Duran in the head.
Manderson’s DNA was found at the scene, and a witness described seeing him shortly afterward being helped out of a car with a gunshot wound to the leg. Manderson told police that he had been shot by Andy Barnes, which the prosecution suggested was a cover story.
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