Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
A man has been acquitted of seven charges related to the botched kidnapping of a businessman from St Helena in 2023.
Dishon Lewis was found not guilty of the charges by a nine-member jury at the end of his trial before Justice Nalini Singh at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, on Wednesday.
The charges stemmed from an incident in April 2023.
The businessman was at his car care business on El Carmen Road in St Helena, when four masked and armed men in a Nissan Sylphy drove into the yard.
The men bundled him into the vehicle and drove off.
Police officers were on mobile patrol along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Mausica when they received the report of the abduction and attempted to intercept the vehicle.
There was a reported exchange of gunfire between the abductors and the police during a high-speed chase.
The abductors eventually crashed the vehicle into the wall of a private property along the Arima Old Road.
The men abandoned the vehicle and ran away in different directions.
Police found the victim, who was restrained and had gunshot wounds, in the backseat of the vehicle.
Lewis was eventually charged after the police claimed they found his fingerprint on a phone that was left behind in the car.
Two police officers involved in the businessman’s rescue also pointed him out in an identification parade.
Lewis was charged with kidnapping, wounding the businessman, three charges of shooting with intent and possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition.
During his trial, Lewis’ lawyers Shawn Morris and Darryl Douglas, of the Public Defenders’ Department (PDD), claimed that the police officers fabricated the case against Lewis as it was likely that they shot the businessman while attempting to intercept the vehicle.
They contended that the identification parade was unfair as none of the decoys selected by the police resembled Lewis.
They also claimed that the cellphone could have been planted by the officers to buttress their false case.
They noted that the officer, who investigated and laid the charges, did not present CCTV footage, which she claimed she had and did not interview witnesses who were present when the businessman was initially abducted.
They also called on the jurors to consider that clothing seized from Lewis was not tested for gunpowder residue.
The jurors deliberated over the evidence for over an hour before returning with the unanimous not guilty verdicts for Lewis.
Lewis was also represented by public defender Laurina Ramkaran.
