Man freed of 2007 murder

IT was Apollos Alexander’s fourth trial for murder, and after spending over a decade in jail, he was on Thursday acquitted by a Port of Spain jury.

Alexander, 30, of Lodge Place, East Dry River, was before Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor in the Port of Spain Fourth Criminal Assizes.

She completed her directions to the jury and 35 minutes later they returned with their not-guilty verdict.

Alexander was before the court for the murder of Kwame “Butters” Julian at Observatory Street, Port of Spain, on October 5, 2007. Julian was speaking to a friend when he was approached by a gunman, who shot him in the back of the head.

Alexander’s previous trials before Justices Devan Rampersad, Mark Mohammed and Hayden St Clair-Douglas, in 2011, 2012 and 2014, were all aborted.

An application at the start of the trial by Alexander’s lawyers Wayne Sturge and Mario Merritt to have the murder indictment stayed permanently, since there were three trials without an outcome, was denied by the judge, who ruled that it would not be unconscionable to put him on a fourth trial, as the others were never completed.

The State’s main witness against Alexander was his half-sister, who was also Julian’s half-sister.

The defence alleged she fabricated her evidence, while the evidence of Sultan King, who also allegedly witnessed Julian’s murder, was also disputed by Alexander’s lawyers.

King was murdered after he testified at the preliminary inquiry into the murder, and his written evidence from that process was tendered as evidence at Alexander’s trial.

Alexander’s lawyers alleged that King was the killer and murdered Julian as revenge for the murder of gang leader Kerwin “Fresh” Phillips, who was killed weeks before.

Alexander said that at the time of the murder he was at the Port of Spain Magistrates Court with his brother.

Alexander was also represented by Karunaa Bisramsingh.