The country’s second judge-alone trial has ended with a not guilty verdict for a man charged with stealing a car.
Delivering judgment in the Port-of-Spain High Court on Wednesday, Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo freed Ronald Gill after ruling the State had failed to prove its case against him.
Gill was also facing an alternative charge in the indictment for receiving the stolen Hyundai car but Waterman-Latchoo also acquitted him of that offence.
Gill elected to have the judge-alone trial before Waterman-Latchoo on March 11, with witnesses statements in the case being submitted and two witnesses testifying. The following day, Waterman-Latchoo heard brief submissions before adjourning her decision on Gill’s guilt or innocence.
According to the evidence presented by State prosecutors, Gill was charged on February 4, 2010, after police stopped the vehicle along Independence Square in Port-of-Spain. The car had been reported stolen the month before and had false licence plates.
In deciding the case, Waterman-Latchoo noted that when he was stopped, Gill denied that the car was his and his front seat passenger claimed ownership.
While she acknowledged that the licence plates had been changed, she noted that the chassis had not been tampered with and it was not repainted.
Waterman-Latchoo said based on the evidence, the State had failed to prove that Gill stole the vehicle or came into possession of it knowing that it was stolen.
Gill was the first person to elect to have a jury-less trial in the Port-of-Spain High Court after the Miscellaneous Provisions (Trial by Judge Alone) Act 2017, was proclaimed on February 1.
The legislation gives accused persons the option to have a trial without a jury in any indictable case, but does not give the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) the power to recommend such a trial.
The first judge alone case was completed in San Fernando on February 18, when High Court Judge Gillian Lucky found Kwasi Forde, not guilty of murdering a man during a botched robbery in 2005.
Gill was represented by a defence team led by Sophia Chote, SC.