Melvan Lewis Appellant v The Queen Respondent [ECSC]
| Jurisdiction | Saint Kitts and Nevis |
| Judge | BISHOP, J.A.,Chief Justice |
| Judgment Date | 11 October 1985 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1985] ECSC J1011-1 |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 4 of 1985 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Saint Kitts and Nevis) |
| Date | 11 October 1985 |
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
The Honourable Mr. Justice Robotham—Chief Justice
The Honourable Mr. Justice Bishop
The Honourable Mr. Justice Moe
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 4 of 1985
Lee More for the Appellant
H. Rawlins for the State
On the 30th June, 1984, around 7.00 p.m. Austin Browne of Molynenuse left his home where he lived with Mary Phillips, to go to work as a watchman at the site of a new hospital under construction in Molynenuse. He took with him a black transistor radio and a lady's wrist watch.
Mary Phillips saw him before he left but she never saw him alive again. His dead body was discovered in a shed at the site and Mary Phillips later identified it to the doctor who performed a post mortem examination after viewing the body at the shed.
Austin Browne died between 10.00 p.m. on the 30th June, 1984 and 4.00 a.m. on the 1st July, 1984, as a result of intracranial haemorency caused by one or two blows to his head delivered with a hard blunt object used with such severe force that the skull was fractured.
Melvan Lewis was arested and charged with the murder of Austin Browne. He was convicted and sentenced to death on the 12th July, 1985.
On the 24th July, 1985 he filed a notice of appeal in which two grave were set out, however before this Court learned Counsel argued only this.
"that the learned trial Judge erred in exercising his discretion in refusing to call as a witness after the close of the case for the defence, Sergeant Merdith Charles, to testify of certain hammers he had found during his investigations into the offence."
The case for the Crown was based on circumstantial evidence and on oral and written statements attributed to the appellant.
The defence was a denial of most of the material facts and circumstances relied on by the Crown and of some of the statements attributed to him. He denied being connected with the death of Austin Browne.
Fabian Isaac, a witness for the Crown, explained that on the night of the 30th June, 1984 he and the appellant went to a dance at the Molynenuse School room. The appellant was wearing a yellow pair of trousers and a white T-shirt with black writing. They left the dance shortly before midnight and were walking past the site of the new hospital on their way home to Lodge Project. There was someone sitting in a shed on the site and shortly after passing it, the appellant said that he was going back and "pick" the man in the shed. Isaac pointed out that there was light in the shed and the appellant deemed him a coward and told him to go ahead, he (the appellant) would catch up with him. The appellant turned back but Isaac walked on.
Jennifer Benjamin was at the same dance that night and she saw both Fabian Isaac and the appellant there. The latter was wearing a white T-shirt with writing on it and yellowish pants. He wore a striking hairstyle—a narrow strip along the centre from front to back of the scalp, and on each side of that strip of hair, the scalp was clean shaven.
At about 1.15 a.m. on the 1st July, 1984, Jennifer Benjamin and three others left the school room and were walking to Otteys. Theypassed the site of the new hospital and she noticed a man sitting inside the shed at a table and someone running from the shed. The latter was dressed in a yellowish pants and a white shirt. He carried something in each hand. His hairstyle was the striking one just described. Not very long after that, Jennifer Benjamin saw Fabian Isaac and the appellant together, and as she walked towards her home at Otteys she saw the appalled jump over a low wall near to the Mt Carmel Baptist Church. At that time the appellant was wearing a yellowish pants and a white T-shirt.
Sometime later that morning the appellant was asked by A.S.P. to hand over the clothes which he was wearing the previous night. The appellant handed over a pair of long yellow trousers and a white T-shirt with writing on the back and the front. These clothes were produced as exhibits at the trial. Isaac and Benjamin identified them as the clothes that they saw the appellant wearing and which they referred to in their testimony.
Fabian Isaac explained that the appellant caught up with him as he said he would. The appellant was then carrying a white plastic bag and a black transistor radio, neither of which he was carrying before he turned back earlier. He asked the appellant how he got those things and the appellant answered that he got them from the watchman in the shed, whom he had knocked out with a stake from the foundation. The radio was identified by Mary Phillips as the same one that Austin Brown took with him to work, from home.
The Crown's case was that the appellant by this statement to Isaac confessed that he had assaulted and robbed the man in the shed of the radio and contents of the plastic bag; and that the nature of the a was such as to knock him unconscious.
According to Fabian Isaac, while he and the appellant walked on, the light of an approaching car attracted his attention and at about the same time the appellant jumped over a low wall at the side of the road.
Jennifer Benjamin also testified seeing the appellant jump over the wall.
The conduct and statements of the appellant between 1st July, 1984 and the 13th July, 1984, were also relied on by the Crown. Fabian Isaac said that on the 1st July, while walking from Otteys to Lodge Project some time after 7.00 a.m. the appellant confessed to him that it was he—the appellant—who had killed Austin Browne; he also advised Isaac to keep his mouth shut. As they walked on they met Carl Warner who said to the appellant: "I hear you kill a man". The appellant then replied: "I want to kill you too". A fight ensued during which the appellant was cut. On being told by Isaac that he should report the matter to the police, the appellant observed; "You null hear the man say he see me kill the man text. There the witness Isaac was stating what the appellant alleged had been said to him by Carl. Later I shall refer to what the appellant said Carl told him. It was relied upon by learned Counsel for the appellant who regarded it as significant.
According to Isaac, after the fight with Carl Warner, the appoints went home at him;...
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