Having spent eight years in prison for the murder of Rasheed Goodridge, Point Fortin friends Dirk Bruno and Sheldon Henry tasted freedom after Justice Hayden Sinclair-Douglas struck down the evidence of the state’s main witness Gabriel Charles, who was killed in 2008.
In his ruling at the San Fernando First Criminal Court on Thursday, Sinclair-Douglas upheld no-case submissions, filed by defence attorneys Larry Williams and Marissa Bubb on Wednesday, contesting the identification statement taken from Charles.
After a six-week trial in which ten witnesses gave evidence and six formal admissions were heard, Sinclair-Douglas said he had a duty to review the quality of the evidence presented. He said after the prosecution, led by state attorney Stacy Lalloo-Chung, closed its case on Wednesday, he looked at the evidence and kept coming back to the “inescapable conclusion” that the identification evidence was poor.
Based on his analysis of the evidence as being of poor quality, he directed the 12-member jury to render a not-guilty verdict. He then discharged Bruno and Henry. The accused, both of New Village, Point Fortin, were charged with the 2007 murder of Goodridge, 21, a student of the Servol Life Centre, La Romaine.
The court heard that on May 22, Goodridge and Charles, 23, were near a bamboo patch at La Fortune Road, Point Fortin, where the accused went to buy marijuana from the men. After Goodridge returned with the marijuana, one of the accused pulled a gun and shot him in the head and chest before running away. Charles was also shot in his head, but he survived. The accused were arrested about a week later and Charles pointed them out in an identification parade.
However, Charles, of Warden Road, Point Fortin, moved to Port-of-Spain on his release from hospital and only returned home in July 2008, when he was expected to testify in the preliminary inquiry into Goodridge’s death, but he did not attend court.
On July 28 around 8.30 pm, he was sitting under a tree across from his home, with his friend Rodney Persad, when a gunman walked up to him and shot him in the head. Persad was also shot in the back before the gunman escaped in a car.
Sea bath in order
With his newfound freedom, Bruno said, a sea bath was first on his agenda and he would take it anywhere he could find it.
“I knew the truth must prevail. The only thing is that I find the justice system is real slow, but now I got a chance to go back out there and enjoy life,” Bruno said.
Henry preferred not to speak.
Speaking outside the court, Williams explained that although Charles pointed out the men during the identification parade, the problem was in his recollection of the incident. He said because the witness was deceased, the defence could not cross-examine the witness.
Describing the ruling as a “very informed decision,” Bubb said Sinclair-Douglas “clearly dissected the evidence to come to the conclusion that it would have been a miscarriage of justice to put this matter before the jury based on the evidence produced by the State.”