Clifton Graham was yesterday cleared of the charge of murdering taxi driver Rawlston Bernard Henry, after Justice Roxane George directed a jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
The judge’s direction came after upholding a no-case submission made by defence attorney Maxwell McKay last Friday.
In her detailed ruling, Justice George underscored the prosecution’s failure to establish that Graham had the intention to kill the deceased or knew that the two men he was with wanted to kill Henry.
The judge ruled too that the prosecution had not substantiated that Graham aided and or abetted the men in a joint-enterprise pact.
In the circumstances, the court ruled that the defendant had no case to answer and ordered the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
A visibly-relieved Graham, who was moved to tears, sat in the prisoners’ dock for a brief moment to compose himself after the police released the shackles from his feet.
Before telling him that he was free to go, however, Justice George firmly upbraided Graham about the company he followed.
While noting that he had been found not guilty after the court would have ruled on legal issues arising in his case, the judge cautioned the former accused to be careful with the friends he keeps.
The judge quoted to Graham the saying, “Show me your company and I’ll tell you who you are,” while noting that his company was “unwholesome.”
Justice George also referenced the Guyanese proverb, “Moon ah run till day ketch um,” and cautioned Graham that while luck is on his side now, he may not be so lucky the next time.
“Stay on the straight and narrow path,” the judge warned.
As he exited the courtroom, a teary-eyed Graham thanked his attorney and hugged his other supporters who were in the courtroom.
The charge against Graham was that he murdered Henry between May 2 and May 3, 2009, at Onion Field, La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara.
At the commencement of the trial, Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy, who represented the State, had told the court that on May 2, Graham, along with others, hired Henry to take them to the East Coast.
She had said that sometime after, Graham and his accomplices held the driver at knife-point, ordered him to a location at Onion Field, stripped his car, and killed him.
According to a caution statement admitted into evidence at his trial, Graham had identified two men to police as the persons who killed the taxi driver. According to the statement, Graham told investigators that on May 2, 2009, he went to the Better Hope residence of the man he identified as ‘Coolie,’ after which they went together to the residence of another, identified as Gladwin, at Plaisance Squatting Area.
He said they all remained there until six that evening, before going back to Better Hope, where they visited another residence. He said ‘Coolie’ told him to wait there and left with Gladwin for Georgetown.
Graham is reported to have said that the two men returned about 10 that evening with a grey car, which Gladwin was driving. He said the men told him to check the trunk of the vehicle and when he did he saw “a man tied up and lie down in the car trunk.”
Graham, the statement details, then told police that he, in the company of ‘Coolie’ and Gladwin then went to the pasture area at LBI. He said Gladwin again was driving the car.
According to the statement, once they had gotten there, Gladwin told Graham to wait in the car and be on the lookout for police, while he and ‘Coolie’ took the man out the trunk and walked him to the pasture.
The man, the court heard, tried to escape, but Gladwin held onto him. Graham told police he waited for a while until he saw only Gladwin and ‘Coolie’ return; they were both carrying blood-stained choppers. Graham said he then enquired from them what had happened to the taxi driver and was told by Gladwin that he had killed him.
The trial was heard at the High Court in Georgetown.
