Lawrence Wayne, the businessman accused of murdering a suspect in the robbery of his business, was yesterday freed at the end of a preliminary inquiry (PI) into the charge against him.
When Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan announced the decision in a city court, it was met with cheers from members of the audience, prompting the orderly to call for order.
The magistrate discharged the case against Wayne, upholding a no-case submission made by the defendant’s attorney, Mark Waldron, after she found that the prosecution had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he had murdered Dexter Lindo.
In order for a case of murder to have been proven, Magistrate McLennan stated, the prosecution had to satisfy three elements of the case. Firstly, it needed to be proven that the defendant was not suffering from insanity; secondly, the prosecution had to provide proof that the accused acted with intent; and thirdly, it needed to be proven that the deceased was indeed killed.
All other elements of the case being satisfied, it was on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove Wayne’s intent to murder the deceased that the matter was discharged.
Furthermore, McLennan stated that there was no evidence contradicting Wayne’s claim that the deceased had pulled a gun on him, leading him to act in self defence.
Lindo and another man had allegedly robbed Wayne’s business place prior to the encounter where the young man was fatally shot. After the robbery, Wayne allegedly made his way to a location at Light and Sixth streets, Alberttown, where a confrontation ensued between the two and the Lindo was fatally shot.
