A man from Arima, who was freed of a double murder due to prosecutorial delays before being rearrested and recharged last year, has been freed again.
Ceyon “Six” Nicholas, of Simon Road, Carapo, was set free last week after High Court Judge Nalini Singh granted a stay of the indictment against him due to issues with the evidence which allegedly linked him to the crime.
In early 2022, Nicholas was charged with murdering Richie Richard Ragoo, Emmanuel Nyron Phillip and the attempted murder of Zachary Cezair. He was also slapped with firearm and ammunition possession charges.
The men were shot at during an incident at Jokhan Trace, Carapo on October 25, 2021.
Cezair attempted to run away but was shot.
He pretended to be dead but was shot a second time in his foot by the gunman when he (the gunman) was running away.
Ragoo and Phillip, who was Cezair’s uncle, succumbed to their injuries. Cezair survived and became the State’s main witness against Nicholas.
In May, last year, Nicholas was discharged by High Court Master Whitney Franklyn after prosecutors failed to meet a deadline for filing the evidence against him, including the sworn statement from Cezair.
Nicholas was released from remand at the Maximum Security Prison (MSP) in Arouca but hours later, he was rearrested and slapped with the same set of charges.
He was committed to stand trial by another Master and the case was assigned for case management before Justice Singh.
Justice Singh agreed to grant the stay based on an application from Nicholas’ lawyer Roshan Tota-Maharaj.
In assessing the application, Justice Singh considered the reliability of Cezair’s evidence.
Justice Singh noted that when he was first interviewed by police officers while receiving treatment at hospital, he gave a description of the man responsible for the shooting, whom he claimed he did not know. She noted that two months later, he provided another statement in which he identified Nicholas as the shooter.
Cezair claimed that he withheld the information as he was heavily medicated and fearful of possible retaliation against his family. He claimed that he saw Nicholas previously in the community but only learned his name after he saw a Facebook post while recovering from his injuries.
Justice Singh ruled that Cezair’s evidence was poor and Nicholas should not face a trial based on it.
“There being no independent supporting evidence capable of buttressing its correctness, allowing this evidence to go before a jury, even with the strongest directions, would risk a conviction founded on identification evidence that is too fragile to sustain proof beyond a reasonable doubt without support,” she said.
Justice Singh noted that the intervention before trial was a rare occurrence, as the jury is ordinarily required to assess the evidence and determine guilt or innocence.
“This intervention arises only because the sole evidence linking the accused to the offence is identification evidence whose deficiencies are apparent on the committal material itself and are incapable of being cured by further evidence,” Justice Singh said.
“It is the singularity and patent fragility of the identification that render this case exceptional,” she added.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Shervon Noriega, Cassie Bisram and Afeisha Williams.
