SRP freed of killing teen

“I have nothing to say,” said Special Reserve Police (SRP) Nicholas Leith, moments after he was freed on the unlawful killing charge of 17-year-old Aneisha Neptune. The nine-member jury was instructed to return a not guilty verdict in favour of Leith, after Justice Carlton Best upheld a no-case submission by Leith’s attorney Israel Khan SC, assisted by attorney Ulric Skerrette. In giving his ruling, Best observed that this was not a case of police brutality or of a policeman shooting a girl and getting away. He noted that his decision might be considered unpopular, “but it must be done.” Leith had raised the defence that he had accidentally shot Neptune when she and her mother accosted him on Morne Coco Road, Diego Martin, in front of the Four Roads Fire Station on the night of May 1, 2000. 

Khan argued that the evidence led by the State to disprove Leith’s defence of accident has been destroyed by cross-examination of the State’s witnesses to such an extent that no reasonable jury properly directed in law could safely convict the accused. Best agreed with Khan’s submission, recalling that the State’s key witness, Molly Neptune, mother of the deceased, gave three different versions of how her daughter was killed and that there were several material inconsistencies by the prosecution witnesses. Khan pointed out that in Mrs Neptune’s statement to the police, her version of what happened differed to her testimony at the preliminary inquiry and again before the Port-of-Spain Second Assizes where the trial was going on. She had also said that there was no cursing or fighting but other State witnesses confirmed that there was a fight between the Neptunes and PC Leith.

Leith, who maintained that he never intended to shoot anyone, claimed that during the fight he had accidentally shot Neptune. After the shooting of Neptune, there was a Coroners Inquest and the Coroner found there was sufficient evidence to lay the charge of manslaughter against the policeman. At the close of the State’s case, led by prosecutors Jeron Joseph and Alexander Prince yesterday, Khan indicated to the court that he wanted to make a no-case submission which was done in the absence of the jury. After the judge ruled on the submission, he recalled the jury and instructed them to formally return a verdict of not guilty in favour of Leith. An unsmiling Leith said he had nothing to say, and left.