16 year old Faron Felix was killed in November of 2007 and two men were charged for it, 30 year old Jason Gentle, 19 year old Norman McKenzie. They’ve been in jail for 19 months but today they were set free, acquitted Justice Michelle Arana found that they had no case to answer. Justice Arana did that in response to a submission made by attorneys for the accused Simeon Sampson and Linsbert Willis. Sampson told us that though Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez called 6 witnesses, none of them put his client at the scene.
Simeon Sampson, Defense Attorney
“And I simply submitted that there is no evidence against my client because the principal witness, the only witness said that he heard gunshots coming from the Central American Boulevard Area and at that point in time there was no evidence that my client was anywhere around that area at the sound of the gunfire. So who did the killing?”
Jules Vasquez,
“So his arrest at the time was merely statistical?”
Simeon Sampson,
“They just saw him running away from a scene, the corner of Central American Boulevard and Faber’s Road. My God, maybe they were running from a dog. What were they running away from? That was the case of the prosecution, they were running away because they were suspects and they were not placed by the prosecution at this spot where the sound of a firearm came from.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Should this prosecution had been abandoned long ago in view of the evidence?”
Simeon Sampson,
“These boys ought not to be prosecuted at all, at all, at all at all.”
Police Constable Mervin Locke testified that he saw Gentle and McKenzie jumping over the fence of the pre-school. That wall as it was referred to was famously broken down by community activists after the funeral. Included among those witnesses called was Cordel Flowers who was along with the deceased and was shot in the heel. He told the court that he did not see the gunman. And though McKenzie was acquitted, he remains in jail serving a 7 year conviction for attempted murder.
