Shawn Smith who was on trial for killing SIMAP employee Lennox Stuart three years ago at Duncan Street, Campbellville was freed in the High Court yesterday after the judge upheld no-case submissions.
Before freeing the young man, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards told him that if he had indeed committed the act of murder he would have to live with the guilt for the rest of his life.
The judge said too, that every case has a silent witness who some refer to as “God” or the “Creator”. She said He sees everything and only He knows what happened in the case. Then she told the accused he was free to go.
Smith, 25, of South Ruimveldt was accused of murdering the 55-year-old Stuart, sometime between January 11 and 12. A post-mortem report said Stuart died due to blunt trauma to the head as result of being hit with a heavy object. In addition, the report said he died of cerebral haemorrhaging.
The prosecution’s case against Smith was a circumstantial one. Smith was found with a few items in his possession which belonged to Stuart, but the youth told police that Stuart had given him the items among which was a cellular phone. Based on this the prosecution led by State Counsel Leron Daly had set out to prove its case.
But the defence led by Legal Aid counsel Gary Best and Nigel Hawke presented evidence to show that some of the items that Smith was found with had not belonged to the deceased. Best made no-case submissions to this effect after the prosecution closed its case.
During the trial, the jury heard that a man was seen fetching things out of Stuart’s home on the morning he was found dead, and that the man was not Smith. Prosecution witness Ronald Barkie, whose deposition was tendered had testified that he saw a tall, dark-skinned man at the home that morning carrying away things belonging to Stuart. This description did not fit Smith.
