Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
After spending almost two decades in prison, a 55-year-old man from Moruga has been freed of murdering his neighbour.
A 12-member jury before Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas at the O’Meara Judicial Centre in Arima took a little over an hour to acquit Lincoln Marshall, of Preau Village, Moruga, last Friday.
Marshall was facing a retrial for murdering 40-year-old David Baptiste on June 10, 2005.
Baptiste was at his home with his wife, his four children and his stepson when two men entered and began interrogating him over “money and weed”.
The men shot Baptiste in the leg and dragged him out of the house. They then shot him in the head before running away.
Marshall, who surrendered to police three days after Baptiste’s murder, denied any wrongdoing as he claimed that he was liming in Princes Town at the time.
His first trial in December 2018 ended in a hung jury as jurors could not decide on a unanimous verdict.
During his trial and retrial, prosecutors relied on the evidence of two of Baptiste’s children, who were eight and ten years old when they allegedly witnessed the crime.
Marshall’s lawyers Renuka Rambhajan and Marissa Bubb challenged their ability to identify their father’s attackers as they pointed out that the family’s home did not have electricity and was illuminated by a kerosene lamp.
While being cross-examined, several police investigators admitted that another suspect was held but was not charged.
They admitted that the other man, who was arrested hours after Baptiste’s murder, had his hands swabbed for gunpowder residue.
However, they said they released the man before they eventually received a positive report from the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
They also acknowledged that they did not properly investigate the alibi provided by Marshall.
The case was prosecuted by Maria Lyons and Kimberly Gunness of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).