Derek Achong
Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A 33-year-old man from Diego Martin has been acquitted of murdering a neighbour over a decade ago.
Steffon "Milly" Pierre, of Upper Quarry Street, Diego Martin, was found not guilty by a 12-member jury at the end of his trial before Justice Hasine Shaikh, late last month.
Pierre was accused of murdering 19-year-old Richard "Killa" Hercules on October 22, 2015.
Hercules was walking near his home when he was approached by a group of men. Two of the men shot him reportedly several times before the group dispersed.
A post-mortem revealed that Hercules had been shot six times including in his face and back.
The State's case against Pierre was based on the evidence of two neighbours, who claimed that they witnessed the shooting.
One of the neighbours, Nigel Ferguson, was murdered at his home in June.
During the trial, Pierre's lawyer Nicholas Rampersadsingh, and Markus Isaac, of the Public Defenders' Department (PDD), raised several discrepancies between the duo's evidence and the post-mortem.
While they claimed that he was first shot in his legs, forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov found no gunshot injuries in that part of Pierre's body during the autopsy.
Pierre's lawyers also challenged the integrity of the police probe into the murder as they highlighted that investigators failed to record a proper initial description of the alleged suspects and send clothing they collected for DNA and gunshot residue testing.
They also pointed out that homicide detectives also failed to properly investigate other individuals of the group, who were identified by the witnesses.
They also suggested to the surviving witness that he decided to implicate Pierre, as he had a disagreement following a failed business deal.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Ambay Ramkellewan and Melissa Boodhai.
