DPP v Sheldon Isaac Romeo Cannonier Ruedeney williams Louis Gardener [ECSC]
| Jurisdiction | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
| Judge | Redhead J. |
| Judgment Date | 15 July 2008 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2008] ECSC J0715-2 |
| Court | High Court (Saint Kitts and Nevis) |
| Docket Number | SKBHCR2008/0047 |
| Date | 15 July 2008 |
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
(CRIMINAL)
SKBHCR2008/0047
Redhead J.(AG) The four accused were charged with the murder of Gavin Gilbert on 21 st March 2005. They were tried by a twelve man jury. The jury having deliberated for a period of two hours and twenty five minutes delivered a unanimous verdict of guilty against the four accused men.
After the verdict was delivered the learned Director of Public Prosecutions announced in open court that she would be seeking the death penalty. A social inquiry report and a psychiatry report in relation to each of the accused men were ordered by the court. The learned Director of Public Prosecutions filed and served submissions to the court.
Two grounds of the application for the death sentence are
(1) The murder of Garvin is an attack on the justice system.
(2) The murder of Garvin Gilbert was the result of a common design of the convicted persons.
It is a matter of record that the second named accused, Romeo Cannonier, on 20th July 2004 gunned down a police officer Delvin Nisbett while he, the police officer, was walking to his girlfriend's house at Dieppe Bay. Cannonier was tried and convicted for the murder of the police officer. In his judgment on the sentencing of Cannonier on 24th January 2008, Belle J. wrote at paragraph 2 "Cannonier told the deceased witness Gavin Gilbert that he hated policemen and that this particular policeman had beaten him in prison. He insisted in this conversation that he would be killing policemen because he did not like police. The prisoner [Cannonier] had told Gilbert on giving him instructions to hide the gun that he should not get caught with the gun because it was the same gun he used to kill the police."
The prosecution's case is that the second named accused, while he was in custody at Her Majesty's Prison awaiting his trial for the murder of the policeman met and spoke to one Lionel Warner, who was remanded in the same prison for two months for the non-payment of a child maintenance order.
Lionel Warner testified on behalf of the prosecution at the trial of the four accused men for the murder of Gavin Gilbert. He said on oath that Cannonier told him that when he got out of prison he must tell Louis Gardener, alias Tulu that he, Louis Gardener, must kill Gavin Gilbert who was to testify against him in his trial for the killing of the policeman. Lionel Warner told the jury that after his release from prison he saw the accused Louis Gardener and gave him Cannonier's message in the presence of Sheldon Isaac who immediately said that he, Isaac, too would kill Gavin Gilbert.
As learned counsel for prosecution, Sir Richard Cheltenham Q.C. said Sheldon Isaac was present when the message "of death" from Romeo Cannonier was delivered to Louis Gardener. Isaac immediately bought into the plan.
Miss Kimia Evelyn, the girlfriend of Ruedeney Williams testified on behalf of the prosecution. She said that on the afternoon of 21" March, 2005 her boyfriend picked her up from work. On their way home Ruedeney Williams received a call from Hatcher, Sheldon Isaac, whose voice she recognised. Ruedeney told him that he could not pick him up because his girl friend was in his car.
Kimia Evelyn said that when she and her boyfriend, Ruedeney Williams, got home, Ruedeney Williams made a call and said "we reached." She said Ruedeney was cleaning his gun. He was wearing black gloves. About 6:00 p.m. Sheldon Isaac and Louis Gardener arrived at their home; both of them were dressed in black. She told the jury that Tulu, Louis Gardener, was wearing dark shirt, dark pants and black shoes. Hatcher, Sheldon Isaac, was wearing a black thick hoodie black jeans and black sneakers.
Ruedeney Williams went outside of the house to meet them, before going out, Ruedeney Williams told her that she should not touch the gun because he did not want her finger prints on the gun. She told the Court that Ruedeney Williams spoke to the two accused, Sheldon Isaac and Louis Gardener. They both got into his car and he drove them away.
Kimia Evelyn testified that Ruedeney Williams returned about fifteen minutes later. He told her that the men had gone about their business. The irresistible inference to be drawn from this testimony is that Ruedeney Williams had driven the two accused Isaac and Gardener to wait in ambush for Garvin Gilbert in order to execute their murderous plan.
There is not a scintilla of doubt in my mind that these four accused men put their heads together to plan and execute this vicious murder of the deceased for the sole purpose of silencing him so that he would not be able to testify against the second named accused Romeo Cannonier who had previously brutally murdered a police officer because of his hatred of the police and because as he claimed that the officer beat him while he was in prison.
I am fortified in my view having regard to what Louis Gardener himself told Donell Stephens. Donnell Stephens testified that Louis Gardener told him that they had killed Garvin to free Romeo.
This to my mind scoffs at and mocks our justice system, which I regard as sacrosanct because if our system of justice is compromised that would spell disaster to civilized society. In this regard I point to the obvious fear of some of the witnesses who testified at this trial. I have no doubt in my mind that some of these witnesses were mortally afraid to testify against the accused persons. Donell Stephens fainted and collapsed on two separate occasions while he was giving his testimony. Kimia Evelyn when she was called to testify seized up and was unable to speak. On the second occasion when she was again called she began her testimony well but halfway through was gasping for breath. When she was again called to resume her testimony she did so by shielding, with her hand, her view from the accused. I have no doubt that all of this was because of fear. Some of the jurors expressed concerns for their safety to me. In my twenty three years as a judge, I have never experienced a trial with so much drama and tension as this one.
In these trying and difficult times when a society is gripped by violence and intimidation to the extent that the basic fabric of civilized society is challenged by those perpetrators of violence, the Court must be the sentinel on the qui vive. If the Court fails to adopt that role, then I fear that the criminals would commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.
In addition to what I have said this to my mind, is more alarming when the genesis of the plan to kill the potential witness originated from within the supposed secured walls of Her Majesty's Prison and the author of which was an accused who was awaiting trial for the brutal slaying of a police officer
Another alarming aspect of this case, to my mind, is that deceased was dropped off close to his home after a friend had taken him to St. Pauls to collect KFC. Soon after the gun shots were heard people were on the scene. The deceased was seen lying on the ground without his trousers. Dogs were seen having his dinner, the KFC. The deceased trousers were later found close, to the beach, in the direction which his assailants had run. The obvious inference is that the assailants had partially undressed the deceased after executing him. This to my mind was an attempt to humiliate the dead, his sin being a potential witness in the slaying of a police officer
In this regard I agree entirely with the learned Director of Public Prosecutions who in her written submissions argued that the Court must ensure that the nature and commission of this kind of offence is one which must be deterred to...
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