kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
After nine years in State custody, accused of murdering his schoolmate Renaldo Dixon, 14, over a girl, Johnathan Bruce yesterday left the Supreme Court, San Fernando, a free man after a judge found him not guilty.
After two and a half weeks in a judge-only trial, Justice Geoffrey Henderson acceded to defence attorneys Ainsley Lucky, Kiran Panday and Surya Deonarine’s case that Bruce acted in self-defence.
Bruce, now 24, was a 15-year-old Form Five Waterloo Secondary School students at the time of the incident. He was due to write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations when his life changed.
The court heard that during the 10.30 am recess break on May 27, 2013, Bruce and Dixon were in a Form Three classroom when they got into an argument over a Form Two girl.
The court heard that the boys liked the same girl and told her to choose. She chose Bruce, her ex-boyfriend, and the boys began to fight, resulting in Dixon being stabbed in his abdomen and back, piercing his spine and a lung. Dixon died hours later at the Freeport Health Centre while police had Bruce in custody.
On June 4, police charged Bruce with murdering Dixon and placed him in the Youth Training Centre.
After several appearances in the Couva Magistrate’s Court, a magistrate committed him to stand trial for murder in June 2016. The State indicted Bruce in December 2020.
In November 2021, his attorneys filed his Form 31 Notice, consenting to a judge-alone trial.
Despite the prosecution not being ready for trial on March 24, the Master of the High Court transferred proceedings to Henderson, considering Bruce’s age and the time he spent in custody awaiting trial. When the matter came up on May 12, he pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors Ambay Ramkhellawan and Denisha Mayers called 31 witnesses, including former students, teachers, school personnel, police investigators and a pathologist. They argued that during the altercation, Bruce pulled out a knife, grabbed Dixon and stabbed him. Witnesses testified to seeing Dixon clutching the side of his torso before walking out of the classroom and collapsing.
The court heard that two students carried Dixon and placed him on a table outside the staff room, where several teachers attempted to stop his bleeding until an ambulance arrived. When an ambulance failed to respond, a teacher took Dixon to the health centre.
A former student testified to seeing Bruce run out of the classroom and throwing the knife over the school fence. Other students started to beat Bruce but a safety officer intervened and took him to the principal’s office. He stayed there until police took him into custody.
In their case of self-defence, Bruce’s attorneys said their client did not strike Dixon first but retaliated after provocation. Henderson said Bruce’s statement expressly stated this and was discernible from the cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses.
There was no dispute that the boys fought, that Bruce stabbed Dixon or that death was due to the stab wounds. It was whether Bruce stabbed Dixon with the intent to kill him or cause grievous bodily harm, or whether he defended himself.
Henderson relied on the testimonies of the students who interacted with Bruce and Dixon and saw them before the incident. He also found those who witnessed the fight critical in determining the case. The statements revealed that Dixon was relaxing with other friends and became upset when he saw Bruce come to the area.
The testimonies reveal an initial altercation when Dixon walked to a staircase and pushed Bruce, saying: “Ent you want to fight. Fight meh now.”
They also stated that when Bruce came to the class to visit the girl, Dixon threw a chair and approached Bruce. Only one of the witness statements suggested that Bruce started the fight.
Therefore, in Henderson’s judgement, he found sufficient evidence in the prosecution’s case that Bruce acted in self-defence. Henderson noted that Dixon died from stab wounds inflicted with a knife and that one was retrieved from Dixon’s clothes.
“How are these students permitted to enter a school with such dangerous and lethal weapons and why do they have them? Perhaps there is a need to now start scanning students when they enter.”
He also lamented that Bruce was sitting exams at the time of the incident and it should never have taken so long to bring the matter to trial.
