‘Blondie’ freed of Palm Court murder on no-case submissions
JUSTICE William Ramlal yesterday accepted no-case submissions in the Ashanti Schultz, called “Blondie”, murder trial on the g round of the suppression of evidence by police investigators at the Preliminary Inquiry.

‘Blondie’ walks free yesterday

This suppression of evidence took the form of the Chief Investigator admitting to the Judge and jury that swabs taken from the hands of “Blondie” after the shooting on September 16, 2007, in search of Gun powder residue, had been found negative by the Police Analyst, Mr. Steven Greaves.

But instead of presenting the Analyst report to the magistrate at the Preliminary Inquiry, Lance Corporal Kennard Thompson who had collected the report from the Analyst, hid same in his desk and misled the magistrate by telling her that he had not yet received the results from the analyst.

The existence of the report was only made known to the defence lawyer Mr. Nigel Hughes, by State prosecutor Ganesh Hira, last Monday. Hira had only seen it on that day.

Under cross-examination by Mr. Hughes the L/cpl Thompson admitted that he had misled the magistrate and claimed that he had no reason for so doing.

Hughes also questioned another witness who said that he had interviewed four witnesses who had given statements to the police claiming that they had seen a woman named Felicia Sheriff shoot Kenrick Nero.

Hughes, in association with lawyer Mark Waldron for the accused, Ashanti Schultz alias “Blondie”, who is on trial for the Palm Court, Main Street, murder of Kenrick Nero on September 16, 2007, yesterday accused the Police investigative ranks, officials of the analyst Department and the prosecution for suppressing evidence at the P.I. that was in favour of the accused “Blondie”.

The furore came after prosecutor Ganesh Hira submitted an analyst report showing that a swab taken from the hands of the accused “Blondie” shortly after the shooting for possibly gun shots residue had proved negative.

Hughes, who was cross-examining Officer Ludorick Scotland of Brickdam Police Station at the time enquired from the witness why the negative swab result was not tendered at the preliminary hearing.

Scotland said that although he was the head of the investigations, he had not seen the report until at this trial.

Scotland further admitted that there were two versions in relation to the shooting to death of Nero. Ashanti was one suspect and a woman named Felecia Sheriff was another suspect, also accused of shooting Nero.

Scotland admitted that Sheriff was also in custody after four eye witnesses had given evidence to the effect that she was seen firing off a gun when Nero was allegedly shot.

The witness who was put forward by the State for cross-examination said Sheriff was never charged and he did not know how she arrived at the police Station.

But in answer to further questions, witness Scotland admitted telling the magistrate at the P.I. that the only reason Felecia Sheriff was not charged was because of directions.

It was after this admission that lawyer Hughes submitted to Scotland that the Police personnel in this matter in conjunction with members of the prosecution at the Preliminary Inquiry had suppressed evidence which had shown that the accused who was a suspect was not involved in the shooting.

When asked why as Chief Investigator he did not hold a confrontation with the 4 witnesses and the suspect, Felicia Sheriff Scotland answered, “ I have always been advised that a confrontation is not a legal requirement.”

On the resumption on Wednesday, Sgt. Eon Jackson was deemed an expert in identification of firearms but the judge ruled that the Sgt., could not operate as a ballistics expert.

Jackson, who admitted that he was not a ballistics expert , said that as a firearm identification expert, he was shown three .32 spent shells and a Taurus pistol at his department. When compared, he found that the spent shells were not related to the Taurus gun. No bullets were presented to him, he said.

After Mr. Hughes had made his submissions in relation to the suppression of evidence and urged the court to find that the prosecution had failed to make out a prima facie case against his client, Prosecutor Hira conceded that in view of the might of the defence submissions, it was difficult to rebut the submissions by Mr. Hughes.

After directing the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of the accused, the judge was critical of the prosecution at the stage of the preliminary inquiry.

The judge discharged the accused and recommended to the authorities, that P.C. 18079 Kenton De Yong, Const. Ludorick Scotland and L/cpl Alton Sauers , be charged with Perjury.