6 freed of killing 'Tupac' in 2009

SIX men have been acquitted of a 2009 murder of Chivon Israh Lewis, aka “Tupac,” in Morvant because of the unreliability of the prosecution’s main witness against them.

The six – Barry Alphonse, also called Abdul Mohammed and Victor Alphonse; Marlon "Simo" Seymour; Marvin "Menace" Agard, Frankie Jamal Bartholomew, also called Fishie; Darryl "Chinee" Wade, and Randy "Plopee" St Rose – were before Justice Devan Rampersad in a judge-only trial which began on June 1. The six were accused of killing Lewis, 23, of Lodge Place, East Dry River, on April 12, 2009, while at a wake at his girlfriend’s home at Wallace Road, Chinapoo Village, Morvant.

On Wednesday, all six were found not guilty. They were expected to be released from prison once they have no pending matters before the court.

In his ruling, Rampersad held he could not accept any of the evidence of the State’s main witness, Adrian Johnson, as he was uncertain if he was telling the truth.

The judge said the evidence against the six was weak and its quality was not what the court could rely on to convict the six.

The main pieces of evidence for the State consisted of nine statements from Johnson, recorded between June 20-November4, 2009. After these statements were admitted into evidence at the preliminary inquiry at the magistrates’ court and Johnson was cross-examined on them, he swore to a statutory declaration on September 5, 2012, recanting his evidence.

He was also questioned on the statutory declaration at the magistrates’ court and said everything in it was true. He also made a video recording in which he spoke of the agony, hurt and disgust he felt as a result of the things he was made to say against the six.

The video-recorded statement was provided to the defence.

Johnson died on June 20, 2014, after the preliminary enquiry. When the trial began before Rampersad, the State successfully applied to have his deposition tendered into evidence

He said Johnson’s evidence failed to reach the threshold of reliability.

The judge also said there was evidence that Johnson, who had claimed to be present during the planning of the alleged murder, had a strong motive to lie nor was there direct evidence to implicate the six men.

It was noted by the judge that Johnson first claimed the reason he came forward was because of a dispute and his life was allegedly under threat so he hoped to access the witness protection programme until he retracted everything three years later.

He also made mention of an alleged boast by Johnson on how easy it was to set up someone for murder.

The State was represented by assistant DPP Anju Bhola-McQuan and Josanne Forrester while the defence team comprised Wayne Sturge, Mario Merritt, Alexia Romero, Karunaa Bisramsingh, Danielle Rampersad, Amira Khan, Michael Modeste, Randall Raphael and public defenders Adaphia Trancuso-Ribero and Kameika Peters.

In 2012, Alphonse, while in prison, filed a lawsuit to allow him to attend the funeral of his murdered 11-year-old son, Kareem.

While he was not given permission to attend the funeral service, the judge who heard the matter gave him the opportunity to view his son’s body.