In the case of a man accused of possessing an imitation firearm and pointing that weapon at his ex-wife, jurors returned with a not guilty verdict Thursday afternoon.
The Grand Court jury found Cory Shamar Pusey, 34, not guilty following a four-day trial.
The final day began with closing arguments from Crown prosecutor Shauna-Kaye James and Pusey’s defence lawyer Clayton Phuran.
James focused her closing on the assertion that Pusey’s ex-wife was traumatised by the April 2022 incident, when she alleged that Pusey came to her house one evening to discuss their relationship.
During her testimony, the ex-wife said she turned her back on her ex-husband, then heard a gun click. She claimed that when she turned around, he was pointing what appeared to be a gun at her for about a minute, until she asked if he was really going to shoot her. She said in evidence that he then lowered his arm while apologising, and she went back inside her house.
“She was fearful,” James said. “She could not sleep.”
The Crown argued it was this fear that kept the claimant from filing a police report at the time. But when her then-boyfriend and Pusey ended up in a physical altercation early the morning of 8 July 2023, she reportedly feared for both their lives and told police of the earlier incident.
While the defence repeatedly pointed to inconsistencies between that report and her testimony in court — like her description of the colour of the firearm — the Crown said the jury should consider those minor and find the defendant guilty.
‘She was very angry’
The defence focused on casting doubt that the April 2022 incident ever occurred. Phuran pointed to a lack of physical evidence, reminding jurors that police never found a firearm in his client’s possession.
He painted a picture of a “woman scorned”, who wanted to “get rid of” Pusey by fabricating the story.
“She was very angry,” Phuran said.
During his initial police interview last July, the defendant said he “never” had held a gun.
However, his ex-wife had airdropped videos she said showed him holding a gun while atop her roof — which she said he had sent earlier to intimidate her. He claimed that video featured only a pellet gun and was taken years prior in Jamaica, and in court he said he told police he’d never held a gun because he believed they only meant in the Cayman Islands.
Police experts were unable to determine the time, date and location of the original video. The claimant said her phone had been accidentally smashed after she gave police the video.
Phuran said there was a “thin line between love and hate,” and that the claimant had fabricated the gun incident to get back at her ex-husband, who admitted cheating many times in their relationship.
The defence noted Pusey’s claim that he visited his ex-wife and their four children on “many occasions,” including during the April 2022 visit, and had never brought a gun with him.
The verdict
The jury, composed of five women and two men, determined that Pusey was not guilty on the single count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence.
Before members headed into deliberation, Justice Cheryll Richards reminded them that they needed to be “nothing less than sure” of Pusey’s guilt if they were to find him at fault, with the burden of proof falling to the prosecution.
They would have had to believe Pusey not only owned a gun, but that he knowingly possessed it at the time and intended to cause distress, alarm or harassment.
Richards made clear to the jury that because the charge was an “imitation firearm,” there did not need to be proof that the alleged weapon was capable of firing.
Their deliberations lasted less than an hour.
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