(Trinidad Guardian) Diego Martin resident Akili Charles will be remembered by many people for different reasons. To his mother, he was the last of her three children and was always kind and loving. To his friends, he was loyal, intelligent, and outspoken.
And to persons accused of murder seeking freedom before trial, many of whom never met him, his name and the landmark lawsuit to which it is attached, will always have to be cited in their bail applications. Charles, 42, a former murder accused, was shot dead outside his home at Covigne Road, Diego Martin, on Saturday night.
According to reports, around 10 pm, Charles was liming with two friends near his front gate when he was attacked by gunmen, who came on foot and shot him several times before running away. His friends escaped. Charles’ friends and relatives including his 15-year-old daughter rushed to his side and unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead on the scene by a District Medical Officer (DMO). Homicide detectives had not established a motive for Charles’ murder, up to late yesterday, but police sources said they are considering the possibility that he was attacked after he refused to join a gang in the community.
Charles’ murder came less than three days after the United Kingdom-based Privy Council upheld his landmark case over the ability of judges to consider bail for persons charged with murder.
The constitutional case, which effectively changed the country’s almost century-long stance on the issue, was brought on Charles’ behalf after he and five neighbours were freed of murdering a fellow resident after spending almost nine years on remand in May 2019.
In a brief telephone interview, yesterday, Charles’ 73-year-old mother Melina Charles said that since being released her son, a practising Buddhist attempted to keep himself away from trouble to avoid returning to prison.
She described her son as generous as she noted that he was always helping people including through his now-famous case.
“Akili was a praying child and he would give you his last. If you ask him for something and it was his last, he would not save it for himself, he would give it to you,” she said. “Akili was a very caring fella, he was full of love and there is so much I can say about Akili but I just can’t get it off my head,” she said. She said she could not think of a reason for her son to be targeted.
“Life is cause and effect so those who took my son’s life have no guarantee that theirs’ will continue. Life is cause and effect and there is karma,” she said. When a news team visited the community yesterday morning, dozens of residents were in and around Charles’ home mourning his death. Among the mourners was Kareem Gomez, one of Charles’ five friends, with whom he was jointly charged with murder for almost a decade. “I can’t really say nothing bad about him, although two of us was not full hundred,” he said. Gomez said that like Charles he was attempting to readjust to life outside prison and improve their relationships with relatives including their children. However, he admitted the transition has been tough.
“We did rehabilitation programmes in jail but when we come out what is there for we? I can’t get no work because I spend nine years in jail,” Gomez said. Gomez, who claimed to have survived two shooting attempts on his life since his release, noted that Charles was the second of his co-accused to be murdered since they were freed.
In November, last year, Chicki Portillo was shot dead while working on a job site in the community.
He said that after Charles was killed he received numerous calls from friends still on remand in prison, who were saddened and angered by what transpired considering the potential impact of Charles’ case on them.
“Men don’t like what go on. This was the man who fight for a man on murder to get bail,” he said, as he noted that many innocent persons on remand for several years would benefit from the case.
Gomez noted that despite Charles and Portillo’s deaths, he and his remaining co-accused, or “chargies” as he referred to them, would continue their malicious prosecution lawsuit for compensation from the State based on what transpired in their case.
“That is a plus for the system because that is one less that they have to pay. But they have to pay we. We can’t make all that jail for something we didn’t do,” he said.
Legal team mourns
In a press release issued late yesterday, Charles’ lawyers Anand Ramlogan, SC, Ganesh Saroop, and Jayanti Lutchmedial said they were saddened upon learning of his murder. “Akili was an extraordinary young man with great potential who genuinely wanted a better life. It would be wrong to assume that he was just another “bad boy” who was on the wrong side of the law,” they said.