Murder trial nears close

Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell will deliver her summation in the trial of murder accused Jamar Watson next Tuesday.

She made the announcement after Deputy Director of Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC and defence attorney Safiya Moore made their closing statements in the No. 4 Supreme Court in the case in which Watson, 36, of School Gap, Hindsbury Road, St Michael, is charged with the murder of Kemar Gooding, formerly of Ellerton, St George, on March 27, 2018.

Taking the 12-member jury through the evidence of most of the witnesses, Seale highlighted, in particular, those who saw the accused stab Gooding at the entrance of the construction site at the Constitution River Terminal that morning.

The prosecutor maintained that Watson’s decision to walk through the stalls at the terminal several times, even though he and one of the proprietors were “cussing” each other and other men were heckling him, showed that he was “looking for trouble”.

Seale also spoke about the “bounce” between Gooding and Watson, which led to the former throwing and hitting the accused in the back with a bottle. 

“Let’s say that the bounce was accidental. You ain’t look back? If it was an accident, you would say ‘sorry’ and that would done there, but you continued walking . . . . There is a Bajan saying, ‘Trouble don’t set up like rain’. That is not true; it does, but we do not see the clouds,” the senior counsel stressed.

Moore, however, insisted that based on the evidence, there was reasonable doubt. She noted that the police who responded to the incident in the van stand that day and arrested Watson had not asked if he had a weapon or searched him.

In addition, Moore urged the jury to consider the fact that a group of men was chasing Watson right before Gooding was stabbed.

“Somebody who is running away from a group of multiple persons, who is in fear of their life, turns back?” she questioned.

Commenting on Watson and Gooding’s bouncing of shoulders, she said: “If you bounced someone on purpose, you do not turn your back to them. If you bounced someone with aggression, you would be looking for aggression back.”

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