By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterA JUDGE'S FAILURE to give adequate directions to the jury has resulted in the Court of Appeal ordering a retrial for 31-year-old Everton Smith, gardener, of Orange Hill, Brown's Town, St. Ann, who was convicted of murder.
The court said it was ordering a new trial in the interest of justice because the judge did not leave the issue of provocation to the jury or address the jury adequately on self-defence.
Smith was convicted of the murder of 34-year-old Vincent Lewars, woodworker and taxi driver of Brown's Town. Lewars was fatally stabbed on December 25, 1997.
Witnesses had testified at the trial in the St. Ann Circuit Court that Smith walked to where Lewars was standing and stabbed him in the abdomen.
Smith said in an unsworn statement that he was a passenger in Lewar's taxi. When he came out of the taxi in Brown's Town, Lewars accused him of slamming the door too hard. He said Lewars and his friend attacked him. Lewars was about to chop him with a machete when he pulled a knife and stabbed him in self-defence.
The jury found Smith guilty of non-capital murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Smith appealed on the grounds that the judge's direction on self-defence was inadequate and confusing. It was also argued that the issue of provocation arose on the Crown's case and the judge did not leave provocation to the jury.
The Court of Appeal comprising Mr. Justice Paul Harrison, Mr. Justice Seymour Panton and Mr. Justice Howard Cooke, allowed the appeal and ordered a retrial. The court ordered that Smith should be tried in the next session of the St. Ann Circuit court.
