Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
After spending more than a decade on remand, a man has been acquitted of murdering a security guard during a jewellery store robbery in downtown Port-of-Spain.
Kwame Alexander, of Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain, was found not guilty by a 12-member jury at the end of his trial before Justice Trevor Jones on Monday evening.
The jury took almost the full time allotted before returning a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
Alexander was accused of murdering John Adams on May 27, 2013.
According to the prosecution’s case, two armed men entered Anton’s Gold Rush at Aboutique Mall on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, and held up employees.
The men stole more than $120,000 worth of gold pendants and were attempting to flee when they were confronted by Adams and a colleague, security guards assigned to the mall.
The suspect carrying the bag containing the stolen jewellery dropped it after being challenged by Adams’ colleague.
Adams, 41, of Trou Macaque Road, Laventille, attempted to apprehend the other suspect but was shot in the chest.
Both suspects then fled the scene.
Adams was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he died while undergoing treatment for the gunshot wound.
Alexander, who was 27 at the time of the incident, was arrested and charged months later after he was allegedly identified by Adams’ colleague and another security guard employed at the mall.
Both security guards testified during the preliminary inquiry but died of natural causes before Alexander’s trial. The State was allowed to rely on their previous testimony.
During the trial, Alexander’s attorneys, Michelle Ali and Ayanna Norville-Modeste of the Public Defenders’ Department (PDD), argued that the identification evidence against their client was unreliable.
They noted that the security guard who had attempted to detain the robbers with Adams testified that Alexander was not the man he had identified during an identification parade.
The other security guard did not witness the shooting but claimed he saw the robbers running out of the mall after hearing the gunshot.
He was also unable to identify Alexander as one of the suspects when given the opportunity to do so in court.
Alexander maintained his innocence throughout the trial, claiming he had been framed by police.
His attorneys argued that he was wrongly arrested and prosecuted because investigators were under pressure to solve the fatal robbery.
The case was prosecuted by Solange Devenish and Tammy Cato.
