After spending almost six years behind bars and facing two trials, Alexis Turpin was yesterday discharged of the 2016 murder of her partner, Sherwin Johnson, after a judge upheld a no-case submission made on her behalf.
Turpin had been jointly charged with her lover Stephon Barlow, for the July 2nd, 2016 fatal crow-bar beating of Johnson.
After their first trial in February of last year which ended in a hung jury, Barlow threw himself at the mercy of the court, accepting guilt on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
He is currently serving a 10-year sentence.
At the close of the prosecution’s case yesterday morning, defence attorney Damien Da Silva who represented Turpin, made submissions that his client had no case to answer, advancing that the State had failed to prove that the woman had caused Johnson’s death.
Justice Jo-Ann Barlow who presided over the trial, ruled in favour of the defence that the prosecution had failed to discharge its burden of proving that Turpin had killed or otherwise caused the death of Johnson.
In the circumstances, she upheld Da Silva’s submission of no-case to answer and thereafter directed the jury to formally return a verdict of not guilty in Turpin’s favour.
The State’s case was led by Prosecutor Lisa Cave.
In March of last year, Barlow accepted that on the day in question he unlawfully killed Johnson whom he admitted beating and stabbing.
The prosecution’s facts which he did not dispute, were that on the day in question Johnson went home and saw the mother of his child with Barlow; as a result of which an argument ensued.
Prosecutor Tyra Bakker had said that it was during the verbal altercation that Barlow armed himself with a piece of wood and a knife with which he dealt Johnson several blows and chops, causing him to sustain injuries as a result of which he fell to the ground.
Bakker had said that the accused then walked away, leaving the injured man who had to be rushed to the hospital where he later died from the injuries Barlow had inflicted on him.
