STRAVO Evans who walks with the aid of a crutch, hopped out of the Demerara Assizes, yesterday, after he was freed of murder by a mixed jury and discharged by presiding judge, Justice Navindra Singh.

The prosecution’s case was that the accused had used a 9mm caliber gun to shoot and kill Pascal Johnson at Laing Avenue on January 3, 2010.
A young woman by the name of Lisa Ann Nurse who claimed she knew both men and had shared a three-year friendship with Johnson testified that Evans had turned up at Laing Avenue that day with another man.
Evans, she said, was armed with a gun while the other man had a glass.
Nurse said that Evans asked her something and she had to beg him not to harm Johnson as he had done her nothing.
But suspecting that something would happen, she went to a nearby shop for help. She was on her way when she heard the blast of a gunshot, she told the jury.
She returned to the scene only to see Johnson lying on the ground with a hole in his head.
At his trial Evans led an alibi defence and told the jury that he did not commit the crime nor does he know the woman Nurse. He maintained that her story about him was false.
The judge, in his summing up to the jury, told them that if they believed the story of the accused they would have to return to the prosecution’s case to see whether it was straightforward and worthy of belief.
If they were satisfied with the prosecution’s case, they would have to find the accused guilty but if they were in doubt they would have to find him not guilty.
Because of the jury’s verdict, it would appear that they believed the story told by the defence or they were in doubt in relation to the case for the prosecution.
Senior State Counsel Mrs. Teshana Luke conducted the case for the prosecution, while Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Peter Hugh represented the defence.