-judge blames police for poor investigation
JUSTICE William Ramlal yesterday directed the jury in the Dairy Bar murder trial to return a formal ‘Not guilty’ verdict in favour of accused Seon Yaw.
The judge’s direction followed a no-case submission by defence counsel Mr. Bernard De Sanos, S.C., who among other things, had submitted that a prima facie case had not been made out against his client, who now has no case to answer.
The prosecution led by Miss Shivani Balcharan  in association with Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursaslin had set out to prove that the armed accused along with two other men had invaded the Dairy Bar premises in Croal Street on the night of Dcember 6, 2006, when the security guard, Noel Jones was shot to death.
The prosecution had intended to adduce evidence to identify the accused as the armed man who had fired two rounds after ordering employees to lie on their bellies.
But apart from star witness Anmalisa Caesar (23) who had testified that apart from the night of the shooting, she could recall seeing the accused Yaw, when she was 10 years old.   According to her they went to school together, and he had a birthmark over his left eye.  She claimed to have recognised him by that mark.
But that witness who had given the height of accused as five feet three inches, said under cross-examination that she believed that she had made a mistake with respect to height  since the man in the dock was five feet ten and a half inches tall.
Later after the prosecution closed its case the defence elected to make no-case submissions to which the prosecutor replied stating that in spite of how weak was the case it was one that should be determined by the jury.
Justice Ramlal, who will be going on leave shortly upheld the no-case submissions and directed the mixed jury made up of six women and half a dozen men to return a formal verdict of not guilty of murder, which was done.
However the judge told the freed man that from the evidence no one knows whether he had committed the crime except himself.  He was told to walk the straight and narrow path and to keep away from trouble.
The judge in his general remarks declared that from the evidence presented by the police, neither the Court nor the prosecutor is responsible for the resulting effect.
He blamed the police investigators in the particular matter and added, “the prosecution’s case fell apart because of poor police investigations charging that there was no use of technology. It is sheer incompetence and nothing else. The court can only act on the evidence before it. The police have to learn to do a job properly. Justice knows no office….only the matter of legal issues,” the judge declared
Caption:   The day before being freed accused Seon Yaw hiding his face as he was being escorted between court and prison.