Derek Achong

A 12-mem­ber ju­ry in the Port-of-Spain High Court took less than an hour yes­ter­day to ac­quit a 26-year-old man ac­cused of mur­der­ing four neigh­bours dur­ing a game of domi­noes in 2006. Ezra Bhag­wan­deen, of Gov­er­nor Trace, Cunu­pia, walked out of the Hall of Jus­tice, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, af­ter spend­ing al­most six years in prison while await­ing tri­al.

Bhag­wan­deen was ac­cused of mur­der­ing his neigh­bours at Ker­na­han Trace, Chin Chin Road, Cunu­pia, on Au­gust 18, 2006. The vic­tims of the shoot­ing were Re­nald Elie, 46; Ger­ald Gib­son, 52; Willard Bo­livia, 30; and Christo­pher Nel­son, 26, all of Cunu­pia. The pros­e­cu­tion's case was that the four men were seat­ed out­side a par­lour play­ing domi­noes when Bhag­wan­deen and an­oth­er gun­man ap­proached and be­gan shoot­ing at them.

The tri­al, which last­ed sev­er­al months, was presided over by Jus­tice Prakash Moo­sai in the Port-of-Spain First As­sizes. It took an un­ex­pect­ed turn mid­way, when the State's main wit­ness, Yohan Cruick­shank Samuel, claimed po­lice had co­erced him in­to point­ing out Bhag­wan­deen at an iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pa­rade in 2006.

Samuel, who was deemed a hos­tile wit­ness by pros­e­cu­tor Joy Balka­ran, claimed when the mat­ter came up for tri­al last year, he had a change of heart and want­ed to tell the truth. He said he tried to tell the truth dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry in­to the quadru­ple mur­der, in the Ch­agua­nas Mag­is­trates Court in 2008, but two po­lice of­fi­cers sat in the court­room to in­tim­i­date him.

Samuel is now in re­mand af­ter be­ing charged with a mur­der in Au­gust last year. He al­so claimed he was charged with the mur­der af­ter he de­cid­ed to change his tes­ti­mo­ny in the tri­al.