Last-minute challenges with securing jurors in the Grand Court murder trial of Javon James Dixon have delayed the matter by at least a week.
Dixon, 28, of Bodden Town, was charged with the shooting death of Jovin Omar Fuentes, 32, also of Bodden Town.
According to police, Fuentes was shot in Gun Square in Bodden Town on Friday, 1 July 2022.
Sitting in the dock on Wednesday, 1 Feb., Dixon could be seen shaking his head in frustration on hearing the news of the delay.
“We have three of you who now say there is some knowledge of the defendant or the deceased or a family member which would affect you sitting in this matter,” Justice Cheryll Richards said to the jury, as she went on to explain the need for every person of the 13-member panel to be free of any connection that could prevent them from returning an objective verdict.
“We need 12 jurors to try a murder case; when you take out the three, we are down to 10 [from the original 13],” she said, noting another juror was being excused for medical reasons, and “we are now down to nine”, so the trial could not proceed.
The jurors were sent home with instructions that they were to all return to court on Monday, 6 Feb. for impaneling for the Dixon trial and others slated to start next week.
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