Derek Achong
After spending 14 years on remand, a 34-year-old man of east Port-of-Spain has been freed of murdering a fellow resident due to issues with a witness, who initially claimed he committed the crime but later recanted his evidence.
Donnell Innis was discharged by High Court Judge Carla Brown-Antoine at the end of his judge-alone trial last Friday.
Innis was accused of murdering Ronald Ettienne on September 23, 2009.
Ettienne was liming with friends in the courtyard of Charford Courts, in Port-of-Spain, when he was approached by two men, who shot him several times before running away.
Ettienne was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
In the trial, prosecutors were relying on the evidence of one of Ettienne’s friends, who claimed to have witnessed his murder and identified Innis as one of the shooters.
However, the witness, who gave the statement to police while on remand for an unconnected murder, repudiated his evidence as he admitted that he lied to the police. He was deemed hostile by Justice Brown-Antoine.
Innis did not testify in his defence but brought one witness, who claimed that in late September 2009, she received a call from someone that threatened to implicate Innis and her brother in Ettienne’s murder if she identified Ettienne’s friend in the murder of another east Port-of-Spain resident, who was murdered days before Ettienne.
The woman claimed that she ignored the threat and still assisted the police but Innis was arrested and charged with Ettienne’s murder shortly after.
In deciding the case, Justice Brown-Antoine attributed no weight to the witness’ original statement to the police which did not contain his exact words.
She also noted that while the witness claimed that Ettienne was shot at close range, the pathologist, who performed the autopsy on his body, ruled that his injuries were the result of distant-range gunshots.
“The court, therefore, has a reasonable doubt that the accused shot the deceased on September 23, 2009,” Justice Brown-Antoine said.
Innis was represented by Stephen Wilson, Renee Atwell and Avionne Bruno-Mason, of the Public Defenders’ Department. The case was prosecuted by Giselle Ferguson-Heller.
