A RETRIAL has been ordered for 19-year-old Rupert Smith, labourer, of Greenwich Town, Kingston 12, who is charged with murdering Jervis 'Dread' Palmer, 56, a taxi driver.
The jury, which heard the case in the Home Circuit Division of the Gun Court, retired for more than two hours yesterday and failed to arrive at a unanimous verdict.
Justice Zaila McCalla ordered that Smith face a new trial.
The Crown, represented by Herbert McKenzie and Simone Wolfe, Crown Counsel, presented evidence that on November 11, 2000, Palmer took a passenger to Eighth Street, Greenwich Farm, Kingston. The passenger went into a house and while Palmer was assisting the passenger to take the shopping bags into the house, he was shot dead in the house.
SHOOTING
A policeman was driving his private car along Eighth Street when he heard gunshots and saw two men whom he knew going toward the gate. He said one of the men was Smith, the accused.The men looked in his direction and went to the back of the premises.
The policeman said he drove to a street near to the back of the premises and the men fired at him. He fired back, but the men escaped. Smith was subsequently arrested and charged with murder.
Smith, who was represented by attorney-at-law Linton Walters, said in his defence that he was not in the area when Palmer was killed.
