JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes yesterday directed a mixed jury at the Demerara Assizes to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of murder accused Marlon Braithwaite.

Midway in his summing-up, the judge halted his address to the jury  and recalled  an earlier ruling  in which he had overruled a no-case  submission by Senior Counsel Mr. Bernard De Santos ‘
The resulting effect was that the judge directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty in favour of the accused.
Braithwaite was indicted for the murder of his lover Sharmin Mc Kay of Bare Root, East Coast Demerara, allegedly committed on June 15, 2009.
Prosecuting in the matter were Miss Dhanika Singh and Mrs Tashana Lake.
The case which had its own drama was  a one witness case, in which the father of the girl, the star witness, testified that he was sitting on the  koker  bridge  when he saw  Braithwaite  passed riding  a bicycle with an apparently  blood- stained shirt.
But evidence revealed that the witness had given false evidence in respect of his testimony, which questioned his credibility.
The father had said that when he returned home later that day, he found his daughter seriously wounded and that she later died. His impression was that Marlon had committed the crime.
During the trial, a witness collapsed under cross-examination by Senior Counsel and had to be rushed to hospital for treatment.
She did not return to complete her testimony and the judge had granted the prosecution permission to lead deposition evidence under Section 95.