Four acquitted in separate trials

FOUR men have been acquitted of murder in separate trials at the Port of Spain High Court, this week.

On Wednesday, Kedell Alexander was acquitted after a jury found him not-guilty of the murder of 30-year-old “PH” driver Brent “Lil Boy, Bo Bo,” Brewster, of Belle Eau Road, Belmont, on December 29, 2010.

Brewster and some friends were liming on the roadside when he was approached by a gunman who fired a shot at him. He died on his way to the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Alexander was represented by attorney Hasine Sheikh and Justice Devan Rampersad presided over his trial.

On Thursday, Keron Matthews was acquitted by his jury in the Port of Spain Third Criminal Court where he was on trial before Justice Carla Brown-Antoine.

Matthew was charged with the murder of Ezekiel Sean Thomas who was killed on June 28, 2009 mere seconds after he walked out of Club Rush on the Western Main Road in St James.

Thomas, who lived at Dorata Street, Morvant, had just left a party at the club and was walking along the sidewalk when a gunman walked up to him and shot him in the head. Thomas slumped to the ground where he died.

Also on Thursday, two men who were accused of using a Japanese sword to stab a teenager to death in 2009, when they were all schoolboys, were also acquitted by a jury.

The two - Nekero Bartholomew and Lorenzo Maynard - were on trial before Justice Maria Wilson charged with the murder of 18-year-old Dillon Griffith.

At the time, Bartholomew and Maynard were students of St Joseph’s College, while Griffith was a student at the St Augustine Secondary School.

It was alleged that just after school was dismissed, they were close to the St Joseph Recreation Ground, opposite the St Joseph Police Station, when they stabbed Griffith with the Japanese sword they had with them.

Griffith was stabbed once in the chest and the State alleged it was because he was looking at the other two “hard.”

At their trial, their attorneys Mario Merritt, Karunaa Bisramsingh and Richard Mason, challenged the State’s contention that the two stabbed Griffith because of how he looked at them.