Beetham man freed of 2009 ‘turf war’ murder

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A Beetham man has been acquitted of the 2009 murder of a Laventille resident after the prosecution’s sole eyewitness admitted he fabricated his account.

Justice Trevor Jones found Ashton “Doi Doi” Medina not guilty of murder, attempted murder, shooting with intent, and possession of a firearm and ammunition at the end of a judge-alone trial.

Medina had been accused of killing 20-year-old Kenroy Joseph on April 26, 2009. Joseph, of Prizgar Lands, was driving through Success Village when a gunman opened fire, striking him several times. He was taken to Port of Spain General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police arrested Medina days later based on a statement from Joseph’s friend, Jason Hilarie, who claimed he saw Medina shooting at the vehicle.

Hilarie repeated that account during the preliminary inquiry but recanted at trial, telling the court he had fabricated the story because of rivalries between Eastern Quarry, where he lived, and Beetham, where Medina is from. He also admitted waiting three days before going to the police because he needed time to rehearse the false version.

Under cross-examination by Senior Counsel John Heath and attorney Karunaa Bisramsingh, Hilarie acknowledged that he visited Medina in prison and confessed what he had done, saying he wanted to “purge” his conscience. Prosecutors applied successfully to have him declared a hostile witness, allowing his earlier statements to be considered.

Jones said the State faced two major hurdles: the credibility of Hilarie and a timeline that made the prosecution’s case “highly improbable.” The judge noted that Hilarie received a text from Joseph’s phone at 9.34 am while at his home in Eastern Quarry and said it would take him about 30 minutes to walk to Furness Whitty Road, where the shooting occurred. Hilarie claimed the gunfire lasted about five minutes. Police officers testified they arrived at 9.40 am.

Jones said that even taking the evidence at its highest, Hilarie would have had to leave home, travel to the scene and witness a five-minute shooting within a seven-minute window. Rejecting his 30-minute travel estimate while accepting other parts of his account would amount to “cherry-picking,” the judge ruled. Even if the estimate were ignored, he said, the shortened timeline still made it “implausible” that Hilarie could have observed the shooting.

Having found the State failed to establish that its witness could have seen the incident, the court ruled it could not be sure Medina was the shooter and acquitted him on all charges.