A driver from Cocorite has lost his appeal over his conviction for trafficking liquid cocaine concealed in cans of juice.
Delivering an oral judgement during a virtual hearing yesterday, Appellate Judges Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Malcolm Holdip dismissed Stephen Gocking’s appeal and affirmed the 20-year sentence he received after being convicted by a nine-member jury in 2019.
In the appeal, Gocking’s lawyers Larry Williams and Shaun Morris claimed that former High Court Judge and current Appellate Judge Maria Wilson, who presided over Gocking’s trial, made several errors in summing up the case to the jury.
A central issue in the appeal was Gocking’s link to the apartment where the drugs were allegedly found.
During the trial, Gocking denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he merely borrowed the location from his uncle to have a “romantic interlude” with a female friend.
In dismissing the appeal, Justice Holdip ruled that he and his colleagues could not fault Justice Wilson’s handling of the case.
“We are of the view the judge’s summation was fair and balanced. She accurately set out the evidence on both sides. She sufficiently canvassed the factors that the jury had to bear in mind in considering the credibility of witnesses,” Justice Holdip said.
Gocking was charged with trafficking 21.74 kilos of cocaine on August 14, 2001.
According to the evidence presented during his brief trial, Gocking was arrested by officers of the now-restructured Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU) at an apartment at Franklyn Road, Union Road, Four Roads, Diego Martin.
Gocking was found in the apartment along with a woman.
During the search, police found two devices used to seal cans in the bedroom, two boxes with 45 juice cans and a large quantity of Acetone in the kitchen.
When police opened the cans, they found solids suspended in an Acetone solution. They then searched a car, which Gocking admitted belonged to his wife, and found 161 cans containing the same mixture.
The police claimed that Gocking fainted during the search and urinated on himself. They claimed he told them that the canning equipment was for his catering business and his female friend did not know about the contents of the cans.
Both Gocking and the woman were initially charged for the drugs but she was freed at the end of a preliminary inquiry.
Gocking, who testified in his defence, admitted to being at the location when the narcotics were found but claimed that the apartment belonged to his uncle and that he was not involved with the drugs.
Gocking claimed that when the police officers entered the apartment, he and his friend initially thought his wife had sent someone to investigate the affair.
Gocking also claimed that his ex-wife’s car did not contain the cans of the cocaine cocktail and that police placed them there, after finding them in the apartment.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Sabrina Dougdeen-Jaglal.