Lamaizon, McIntyre freed of Laing Avenue execution

A celebration is now underway following the exoneration, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, of two accused men in the Laing avenue murder of Orin David Malik.

City Magistrate Dylan Bess — on Thursday afternoon, prior to dispensing his ruling — reminded the court that his duty in the Preliminary Inquiry is not to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused persons, but rather to discern whether the evidence presented is strong enough to establish a prima facie case against the defendants.
The magistrate, in his ruling, declared that the prosecution was unsuccessful in convincing the court beyond a reasonable doubt that Negus Lamaizon and Samuel McIntyre were guilty, in order to commit them to stand trial at the High Court. He said the essential elements of murder were not proved, and that none of the twelve witnesses could positively identify the two accused individuals as the persons who had shot the deceased, and thus it could not be inferred that Malik had died as a result of injuries inflicted upon him by the two men.
The magistrate said that even though witnesses, during the Preliminary Inquiry, had placed Lamaizon and McIntyre at the murder scene, the question arises as to whether this is sufficient to convict the men of the capital offence.  Finally, in the absence of the mental element to commit the unlawful killing, the two men were pronounced free to go.
Howard Rambarose and Jermaine Jeffers, the two other suspects allegedly involved in the Emancipation Day killing of former murder accused David Malik, remain incarcerated at the Camp Street Prison following murder charges brought against them on March 3 by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
Malik was gunned down execution style on the afternoon of August 1, 2016, following a dispute stemming from the payment of money. On the day in question, the deceased had a heated argument with one of the suspects whom he had bailed out of jail at sometime in 2015. The man then reportedly left and returned with three others, and the victim was riddled with bullets as he approached the vehicle of the said suspects. The injured man was picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.