Joel King acquitted at judge-only trial

JOEL KING made history in 2022 when he became the first man to be granted bail on a murder charge.

Two years later, on January 30, a High Court judge acquitted King, also called Joel Grimes and Catty, of Rigsby Road, Belmont, of that murder at a judge-only trial.

Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo said the identification evidence of the State’s main witnesses was unreliable.

It was the State’s case that King shot Nkosi Harricharan on April 15, 2014, at Hermitage Road, Belmont.

The State relied on the evidence of Kyle Williams, who knew King. It was alleged that King raised his T-shirt, pulled out a gun, pointed it in Harricharran’s direction and fired a shot.

He and Harricharran had been liming together moments before. The shooting took place just before 6 pm, and the lighting conditions were good when Williams allegedly saw the shooting from 15 feet away.

Also confirming the evidence was Denise DeCastro, who lived nearby. She was deemed hostile at King’s trial before Waterman-Latchoo.

Williams’s statement was tendered into evidence, since he is now dead.

The judge pointed out that no witness testified to seeing King shoot Harricharran.

“Identification looms large in this case," Waterman-Latchoo said in her verdict.

She said it was Williams’s testimony that King’s back was turned to him, while DeCastro also did not see the actual shooting, having run back inside when it started.

The judge said on the evidence, there was doubt King committed the offence of murder, before freeing him.

In March 2022, King became the first person to get bail on a murder charge in more than a century. He was granted bail of $1.5 million by then-High Court Master Nalini Singh. This came just over a month after the Court of Appeal found Section 5(1) of the Bail Act of 1994 was unconstitutional, as it breached the doctrine of separation of powers insofar as it removed the jurisdiction of the court to consider bail for those charged with the capital offence. The Privy Council later upheld this position.

However, before King could access bail, the Office of the DPP asked the Court of Appeal to find that neither masters nor magistrates had the power the grant bail for murder, only judges of the High Court. The Court of Appeal eventually upheld this argument and King had to make a new bail application.

His bail application came up last week before Singh, who has since been appointed a High Court judge, but withdrawn since Waterman-Latchoo gave notice of her verdict on January 30.

King is also expected to make another bail application, since he still faces firearm and ammunition-possession charges arising out of the murder for which he was freed on Tuesday.

King was represented by attorneys Larry Williams and Toni Roberts.