In June of 2007, Police patted themselves heartily on the back after then Senior Superintendent of Police Chester Williams all but witnessed a murder. It happened on a Saturday Morning, June 16; Williams was on Curassow Street when he saw two men open fire on Alpheus Smith and killed him inside his SUV.
And more than that, Williams then set chase after the shooters and caught them a few streets away, searched their car and found two handguns. The perfect investigation right? And they even had a motive: the murder victim had been accused of killing one of the suspects’ father! That suspect is Lester Young. The two individuals are brothers Clinton and Jody Gentle. And when Williams caught them those few streets away, they were in a vehicle driven Lester Young.
And theirs was no statistical arrest, it was the real thing and the way police presented it at the time, it should have been an open and shut case. But it didn’t quite work out that way in court. Yesterday afternoon, Young, who is the son of well known, James Young Sr., saw his murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges discharged after his attorney was able to show the court that there was no evidence linking him to the murder of Alpheus Smith.
That attorney is Dickie Bradley and he last week made a submission that there was no evidence against Young. Yesterday, prosecutor, Carol Tucker responded to Bradley’s submission and told the court that indeed Lester Young wasn’t named in any of the statements.
Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb McKenzie concluded that after looking at both sides on the matter, she had to agree that there was no evidence linking Young to the murder scene. But the Gentle brothers who are allege to have been the shooters were not as fortunate as Young to see the charges discharge against them.
Late this afternoon at about 2:30 p.m., the brothers saw their allege murder case committed to the January session of the Supreme Court. That’s because at the end of the preliminary inquiry, Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie said that there were enough evidence against the brothers for the case to be send up to the Supreme Court for trial.
