Dad and 2 sons freed of murder

A MORVANT MAN and his two sons were yesterday freed of murder, after Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls ruled in favour of a no-case submission made by defence attorney Joseph Melville in the Port-of-Spain Eight Magistrates’ Court. This brings to ten the number of people freed of murder for the month of January. The trio, Jimmy “Shabazz” Bournes, 58, Nigel “Dufo” Mayers and Akeido Mayers appeared before McNicolls charged with the April 22, 2003 murder of Andre “X-Files” Lindsey. Lindsey  of Pump Trace, Laventille, was stabbed to death outside the National Housing Authority’s office at Lady Young Avenue, Morvant where he had gone to collect his fortnightly wages. Speaking to Newsday following their release, Akeido and Bournes expressed their “sincerest thanks to McNicolls for seeing through the case presented to the court, in order to serve justice.”

The duo said that they believed that justice had truly been served and that they were looking forward to “picking up the pieces of their lives.” The third person, Nigel Mayers, was not released due to other pending matters. In making the no-case submission yesterday, Melville pointed out that the State had not presented adequate evidence on the alleged crime for a prima facie case to be made out against his clients. Melville also pointed out that the evidence presented to the court by the State was manifestly unreliable and was of tenuous character and as such, must not be allowed. Melville noted that discrepancies in the evidence of State witness Anthony Cox were not a matter that should be sent to a jury. In addition, he pointed out that there was nothing incriminatory about the evidence of another State witness, Sherwin Griffith and advised that the only thing the court should do was to “throw this evidence out of the court.”

In presenting the decision on the no-case submission, McNicolls explained that the State’s case “was moving along just fine” until the evidence of Anthony Quow. McNicolls also explained that the evidence of Quow and Griffith had made the evidence of Otumba Snaggs even more tenuous and manifestly unreliable. He then upheld the no-case submission and informed the trio that they were discharged.