Tonight, 40 year-old Eduardo Rudolpho Torres is out on bail on the charge of Manslaughter by Negligence for the death of 32 year-old John Paul Fernandez, which happened on May 4 on the compound of the Palm Island Bar.
Police were initially treating it as a murder because at around 3:41 a.m. that night, Torres was fatally shot to the right side of his head.
Initially, they didn't have any witnesses who could say that Torres, who was the main suspect, shot him, but after 4 weeks of investigation, they finally charged him.
Fernandez's family is furious that Torres was charged with manslaughter and not murder, especially given the fact of how Fernandez was killed.
But police don't have any evidence in their possession that suggests that Torres intended to kill Fernandez when he fired the fatal shot.
What they do have before them is that both men were good friends, and on the day in question they were playing with a firearm. An accident took place, and while Torres had the firearm in his hand, it went off. The bullet caught Fernandez in the head, and caused his death.
So today, he was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith who granted him bail of $4,000, half of which he had to pay upfront in cash. He was able to meet the bail this afternoon.
He had to hand over his passport to the court, and he must return for his next court date on July 1, 2013.
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