Those who follow the news will know that most times when murder cases fall apart it's because of a missing or un-cooperative witness. But in the murder of Alpheus Smith - the witnesses were two police officers. One of them is Senior Superintendent Chester Williams -who was the second in charge at Eastern Division at the time - and the other, was Constable Obed Garcia.
Both testified, but even with their testimony as direct eyewitnesses to the murder - who chased down and arrested the men with guns a few blocks away from the murder scene - a jury of eight men and four women could not come up with a conviction - in fact, they couldn't even come up with a verdict!
The jury went in for deliberation yesterday evening at 4:37 pm - but when they still had not reached a decision at 9:09 pm - the judge called them back into court and asked the foreman if they were having problem reaching a verdict. The foreman told him that yes they were, and, with that, Justice Lucas discharged the jury.
But that doesn't mean freedom for the pair of accused brothers, Jody and Lynton Gentle. They were remanded into custody and must now wait for a re-trial.
Alpheus Junebird Smith was and killed at 7:40 am on June 16, 2007 on Curassow Street. At the time it was said to be a retaliation for an earlier gang related shooting...
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