For the second time in two years a jury is deliberating the fate of Jamie Dawson. Dawson is accused of murdering Maurice Neal on December 7th of 2002 inside Bismark Nightclub on Queen Charlotte Street.
The prosecution's star witness was Nicolee Lewis, a dead man. In a sworn statement he gave before his death, he claimed that Dawson first shot him with a 9 millimeter pistol. He ran out of the room, and when he came back in, he saw Neal lying on the ground dead. He never claimed to have actually seen Dawson shoot Neal.
Dawson never took the stand in his own defense but from the dock claimed that he was not at Bismark that night, he was Fullington Club. He called Mark Flowers to corroborate his story.
This is Dawson's second trial for the killing. He was convicted of manslaughter in the first but the court of appeal ordered a new trial. Lewis also didn't testify at that trial. Before he could make it to the witness stand on February 18, 2004, he was killed the day before, allegedly by Jason Paulino, Dawson's brother.
The jury went into deliberations at 3:10 and up to newstime they were still in there. Indication from the court at this hour is that there may be a hung jury. Dawson is charged with murder but in the alternative the jury can convict him, again, of manslaughter.
