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Gladden Free Of Attempted Murder
posted (April 25, 2013)
After more than 5 years of the charge hanging over his head, 23 Year-old Michael Gladden is a free man tonight after he was acquitted of attempted murder today in the courtroom of Justice Troadio Gonzalez.

The man he was accused of attempting to stab to death, Leon Young, took the stand yesterday and told the court that he remembers that on November 2008, 6 people got into his taxi and when he took them to Dolphin Park they stabbed him multiple times to the chest, face and back. They left him to die, but police were in the area and saved him. His attackers stole his taxi and stole cellphone and other items.

Young identified Gladden as one of attackers in a police statement. However, when Crown Counsel Leroy Banner tried to press for an identification, he couldn't positively identify Gladden on the stand. When Young was asked why he couldn't do so, he said that 5 years had elapsed, and that this was a very long time.

When the prosecution could provide no evidence to link Gladden to the crime, Justice Gonzalez stopped the case and ordered a jury of 9 to find Gladden not guilty of the crime.

He was able to leave court a free man, joining 3 other defendants, 26 year-old Kenroy Caine, 21 year-old Alex Smith, and 20 year-old Michael Saldivar. Those other 3 defendants were set free yesterday when the office of the Director of Prosecutions provided a letter to the court in which instructed that the charges against them should be withdrawn due to lack of evidence.

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