The Court of Appeal has overturned the conviction and corresponding death sentence against a 47-year-old man accused of brutally torturing and beating his four-year-old stepdaughter to death over 15 years ago.
Delivering a written judgement during a virtual hearing yesterday morning, Appellate Judges Alice Yorke-Soo Hon, Mark Mohammed and Malcolm Holdip upheld Marlon King’s appeal.
King is accused of murdering Amy Emily Annamunthodo at his Ste Madeleine Road, Marabella home on May 15, 2006.
Annamunthodo was burnt with cigarettes on her vagina, inner thigh and forearm an hour before she died. She suffered multiple internal and external injuries throughout her body, including a broken rib and bruised organs.
In its decision, the appeal panel ruled that former President and High Court Judge Anthony Carmona made several errors when he presided over King’s trial in 2012.
It ruled that Carmona mishandled the evidence of King’s ex-wife Lou-Ann Davis, who testified about domestic abuse she allegedly endured while in a relationship with him.
“In our view, the adduction of the evidence of the graphic physical violence allegedly suffered by Lou-Ann at the hands of the appellant created the real risk that the jury might have impermissibly reasoned that because the appellant was alleged to have been physically violent to his former wife, he might also have acted in a physically aggressive manner towards the deceased,” the panel said.
The appeal panel also took aim at Carmona’s handling of the evidence of King’s neighbour Anthony Rocke, who testified that he saw King punching the child 20 to 30 times while she hung from a cloth tied to her hair and attached to a door ledge. She was clad in underwear and her mouth was gagged, according to him.
During the trial, King claimed that he had left the child with her mother and Rocke and suggested that he (Rocke) was in fact the culprit.
“He (Carmona) conflated aspects of credibility with aspects of propensity by instructing them on how such past conduct might have affected his credibility,” they said.
They also said that Carmona should have warned the jury that Rocke potentially had an interest to serve.
“It was inadequate for the judge to merely refer to the fact that Rocke was a man of bad character as a weakness in the case. While the factor was indeed relevant, the judge ought to have gone further in his charge and draw the jury’s attention to concerns surrounding the plausibility of Rocke’s account,” they said.
The panel said it could not be claimed that the jury would have come to the same verdict without the material errors.
The appeal panel did not immediately consider whether King should face a retrial, however, as his attorney Peter Carter requested time to provide submissions on the issue.
Carter noted that he had already sourced King’s medical records and was waiting on the response to a request, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), for information on the average length of time it takes for an accused person to get a retrial after succeeding on appeal.
“It is often several years that a matter sits on a trial list before the determination of a retrial,” Carter said.
The submissions are expected to be heard when the case comes up for hearing on July 29.
King is also represented by Delicia Helwig-Robertson, while Travers Sinanan is representing the State.