DPP granted leave to go to Privy Council to challenge ruling

He was acquitted of the unlawful killing (manslaughter) of a Cunupia pipe fitter in 2003. Samad was one of several police officers who went to George Street, Cunupia, on February 5, 2003, to execute a search warrant at Bernard Albarado’s home.

He was armed with an Uzi sub machine gun which he claimed was accidentally fired resulting Albarado’s death. In their ruling, Yorke-Soo Hon and Mohammed held that the judge was correct not to send the case to the jury since the prosecution failed in its duty to establish that a case had been made out against Samad. “In this case, the direct evidence and the medical evidence are in violent conflict,” Yorke-Soo Hon said.

She said by withdrawing the case from the jury, the judge acted in the best interest of justice and did not usurp the jury’s function as the State claimed in its appeal.

“Before getting to the stage of inviting the jury to consider the evidence, the prosecution must have established a prima facie case. The difficulty for the prosecution is that they were unable to pass this first hurdle because there was a material defect in that they were unable to produce any evidence to support the trajectory of the bullet and explain the exact manner in which the deceased met his death.”