Local cricketer Carlyle Barton is now a free man after the murder charge against him was discharged at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Magistrate Fabayo Azore, before whom the preliminary inquiry was being conducted, found that insufficient evidence was offered by the prosecution and as such a prima facie case could not be made out.
A number of witnesses scheduled to testify in the case on behalf of the prosecution did not appear in court, although the matter was called at least eight times between May 30 and yesterday.
Barton was accused of murdering D’Urban Street resident Shawn Nelson at Orange Walk, Bourda, on May 26.
Police officials had said during Barton’s arraignment that they were in possession of surveillance footage that captured the shooting.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had advised that the police charge Barton, who had turned himself over to police shortly after the shooting.
Nelson, 39, was shot in the head by a man his relatives had described as a close family friend.
Nelson was taken to hospital in a critical condition and he died in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) the following day.
