In tears and shouting “thank you, thank you”, to the jury, former Richard Ishmael Secondary School student, Letitia Bowen was acquitted of a manslaughter charge and two other counts of unlawfully wounding with intent yesterday in the High Court.
Emotional relatives hugged her as she left the courtroom still weeping. The 19-year-old was on trial for the killing of Jacklyn Levius, which occurred in the school compound just over two years ago and the wounding of Wanda Small.
After a lengthy trial before Justice Roxanne George, a jury found her not guilty on all three counts in proportion of ten to two.
Before she left the court, Justice George told Bowen that she (Bowen) knew what happened on that day. When Bowen stepped out of the dock, she made her way over to a relative of Levius and tearfully apologised for the woman’s death.
The jury spent a few hours deliberating before returning with the verdict. For over a month now they sat and heard as the prosecution’s case unfolded and later, the case as presented by the defence.
State Counsel Ganesh Hira who presented the prosecution’s case had set out to prove that Bowen reacted excessively on the day in question — November 11, 2005 — when she was approached by Levius and Small in the school compound. He argued that the schoolgirl had a knife on her person that day and that she used it to injure Levius and Small.
Several prosecution witnesses were called during the trial including Small who was with Levius when she was stabbed.
She testified that she and Levius were with a group of seven women who turned up at the school that day after a relative who attended the school called home to say that she was being picked on.
Small recalled that after they approached Bowen there was an exchange of words. According to her, Bowen was armed and shortly after the confrontation a knife-wielding Bowen stabbed her and Levius. But Small’s evidence was challenged repeatedly during cross-examination and bits were found to be conflicting with her original testimony in the Magistrate’s Court.
Other prosecution witnesses testified to being at the school compound and witnessing a scuffle between Levius, Small and Bowen — they could not recall seeing the actual stabbing.
The story coming from the women who visited the school was that they went to lodge a complaint with the Head Teacher of the school against Bowen and were waiting for her to appear at the HM’s office when Levius and Small broke away from them and went to meet her halfway.
Bowen’s defence was that she acted in self-defence on that day when the two much older women confronted her and started beating her in the school compound. In a statement to police shortly after, which was tendered as evidence during the trial, the teenager said she was helpless and that no one went to her assistance.
She said that a knife fell from one of the women who accosted her and that she picked it up and used it break free from their grip.
The young woman said she had no intention of killing or injuring anyone. She later maintained her story in a statement from the dock and had apologised then for the death of Levius and the injuries that Small received.
Senior Counsel Bernard DeSantos appeared in association with Pamela DeSantos on Bowen’s behalf.
