Derek Achong
A man from Santa Cruz has been found not guilty of cocaine trafficking and ammunition possession.
It took a nine-member jury before Justice Devan Rampersad in the Port-of-Spain High Court, a little over two hours on Friday to return with the not guilty verdicts for Lloyd Yearwood, of Paxvale, Santa Cruz.
During his brief trial before Rampersad, which commenced and concluded this week, prosecutors claimed that Yearwood was arrested after being stopped at a roadblock along the North Coast Road on February 26, 2006.
Police officers claimed that they searched the vehicle and found two packages containing a little over one kilo of cocaine and a box with 25 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
Yearwood testified in his defence at the trial and claimed that he was stopped while returning home from Maracas Bay.
He claimed the officers searched the vehicle, which he had collected from a friend earlier that day, and found a small package under the passenger seat, which he was not aware of.
He claimed the officers took him to his home, where they conducted a search.
He alleged that after they failed to find any illegal items at his home, they took him to the Santa Cruz Police Station where they beat him and charged him for the offences.
He claimed that he was never shown the items the officers claimed they found in the car and the drugs were not weighed in his presence.
While being cross-examined by Yearwood’s lawyers Tamara Gregorio and Randall Raphael, the officer who charged him mistakenly claimed that he was arrested while driving along Saddle Road in Maraval. The officer also claimed that Yearwood was taken to court to answer the charges on a date that did not correspond with official court records.
Yearwood’s lawyers also pointed out that the officer and his colleagues did not make any station diary entries or statements in relation to his arrest.
The case was prosecuted by Anju Bhola and Stacy Laloo-Chung.