the night of April 19th, 2007, 15 year old Jomo Lamb was killed - shot 5 times as he returned from the corner grocery to his home. Today in the Supreme Court, the man accused of killing him, 20 year old Kareem Francis known as Yankee was found not guilty by a jury of 8 men and four women. Francis was also found not guilty of the alternative charge of manslaughter. The key eyewitness was Shakira Castellanos - who did not appear to testify. Through a 2009 amendment in the law to protect witnesses her statement was admitted and read to the jury. She said she did not want to testify because she was threatened and she feared for her life. But Castellanos's statement was not enough to convince the jury that Francis was guilty. Francis gave an alibi statement from the dock in which he claimed that at the time of the shooting, he was in the St. Martin's De Porres area. One witness corroborated his alibi.
The jury deliberated for four hours before arriving at the not guilty verdict. After that, Francis who has been on remand for three years was free to go. The case was heard in the courtroom of Justice Herbert Lord.
