A BARATARIA man who was charged with the murder of a classmate in 2011 has been acquitted by a High Court judge.
On Tuesday, Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo found Aaron de Souza not guilty of the murder of Kevin Francis, 18, of Upper Cemetery Street, Diego Martin.
Francis died on November 4, 2011, after being stabbed once in the neck while standing outside the Metal Industries Company (MIC) compound at Century Drive, Trincity Industrial Estate, Macoya.
Both Francis and de Souza were trainees of the Helping Youth Prepare for Employment (HYPE) programme at MIC’s Macoya compound.
De Souza surrendered to the police on November 5 at the Arouca police station. He presented homicide detectives with a prepared statement about what took place the day before.
He opted for a judge-only trial that began in February and ended on March 27. The judge’s verdict was delivered on Tuesday.
At the trial, before Waterman-Latchoo, the State led evidence from some 20 witnesses three of whom testified to witnessing the stabbing.
Although the evidence from the State’s key witnesses was that de Souza stabbed Francis in an unprovoked manner, during their cross-examination by defence attorneys Mario Merritt, Karunaa Bisramsingh and Randal Raphael, they admitted that before the incident, there were several incidents involving the two.
A HYPE tutor said that de Souza, twice, admitted that Francis and his friends were troubling him while he also complained of having been slapped.
The judge also heard evidence that the police had to be called in on a prior occasion. In his statement, which was admitted into evidence, de Souza said Francis and his group of friends threatened to kill him for bringing the police.
He said during a break, he was surrounded by the group and someone passed a knife to Francis who raised his hand to strike him.
De Souza said he held Francis’s hand and both struggled when the latter was stabbed once in his neck. De Souza’s defence was one of self-defence which was upheld by the judge who ordered his release from prison.
The State was represented by prosecutor Indira Chinebas.
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