After spending more than 17 years confined to legal limbo awaiting a murder trial outcome, five men have walked free from court after a High Court judge threw out their charges and instructed a jury to deliver not guilty verdicts in a case where the alleged victim’s body was never located.
On Thursday, Justice Maria Busby Earle-Caddle issued a landmark ruling that the prosecution failed to establish any actionable case against Clive “Smallman” Charles, Joseph “Joe” Sammy, Quesi “Blacks” Charles, Jaasu “Fat Head” Gafoor, and Markus “Tack” Julien. The five men stood accused of the 2008 murder of Maraval resident Qwasie Dowers.
The judge’s decision aligned with no-case submissions put forward by the legal teams representing each of the five accused, and she immediately ordered their full discharge from custody. A sixth defendant charged in the same murder, Roger “Kyo” Geeban, never lived to see a conclusion to the case, having died in prison before the trial could reach its end.
The origins of the case stretch back to March 2, 2008, when authorities claimed Dowers was killed in an unlawful killing. Prosecutors argued that the suspects disposed of Dowers’ body after the alleged murder, but despite years of investigation, the remains have never been recovered.
When the prosecution concluded presenting its evidence, the accused’s legal teams each filed formal no-case motions, arguing that the State had failed to put forward sufficient credible evidence to support the murder charge and require their clients to mount a defense against the accusation.
After reviewing the entirety of the prosecution’s evidence, Justice Busby Earle-Caddle sided with the defense, granting the no-case submissions and directing the jury to return not guilty verdicts for all five men. She followed the jury’s not guilty rulings with a formal order discharging all five defendants from the murder indictment. Prosecutors Norma Peters and Esther Gaston represented the State throughout the proceedings, while a team of 11 attorneys led by Evans Welch and Sebastian Petersen represented the five acquitted men.