Sean Benjamin, the number two accused in the 2007 murder of Ian ‘Safo’ Adonis walked out of the High Court in Berbice a free man yesterday after the mixed jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
After the jury’s deliberation, Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire told Benjamin that he was found not guilty and that he was free to go.
At first he stood in the dock, apparently not knowing what to do and when the judge repeated that he was free to go, he smiled slightly and hurried out of the courtroom.
He later told this newspaper that he was happy that “after five years behind bars innocently, I finally get justice.”
He feels that it was a “miracle” that he would be able to celebrate Christmas with his family and said “God is good.” He would be spending
some time with an uncle in New Amsterdam before returning to Linden.
Senior State Prosecutor, Prithima Kissoon had told the court that Benjamin murdered Adonis on August 29, 2007 at Rosignol Village, West Coast Berbice.
But in an unsworn statement from the dock, Benjamin had denied any involvement in Adonis’s death.
Defence counsel, Raymond Ali had presented a no-case submission on the basis that the main witness, Leslyn Nightingale, 18, at the time, had given conflicting evidence.
She testified only against Benjamin, claiming that she had seen him inflicting the deadly blow, even though someone else had admitted to committing the crime.
Mark Massiah, called ‘Red Man’ had walked free on December 12, 2012 after his Lawyer, Charrandas Persaud presented a no-case submission. Nightingale had told the court that she was on her way home from work at a restaurant at Rosignol around 11 pm when she saw Benjamin under a shed at Adonis’ house.
She claimed that she heard them arguing over weed and then saw Benjamin hitting Adonis who fell to the ground. She also said that Adonis got up and ran but Benjamin kept hitting him.
Pathologist, Dr. Vivekanand Brijmohan had stated that the post-mortem examination found that Adonis died as a result of hemorrhaging and a fractured skull.
Ali reminded the court that the pathologist had said too that the blow would have rendered the victim unable to get up.
He submitted too that Nightingale seemed to have a motive because she had said in her evidence that Benjamin used to interfere with her and call her a name which she disliked. The attorney also argued that the woman’s evidence in the Magistrate’s
Court and in the High Court was inconsistent.
In his arguments, defence attorney Persaud claimed that Adonis entered a shack where Massiah was and attacked him three times. He claimed that his client acted in self-defence. Benjamin was taken into custody shortly after at Rosignol while
Massiah was arrested a few days later at Mahaica.
