The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court jury is expected to hand down its verdict today in the trial of a man accused of murdering a banker outside his Compass Point office.

After Justice Indra Charles summarises the evidence given during the seven-day trial, the 12-member jury will be excused to decide on whether or not 29-year-old Franklyn Stubbs is guilty of the April 2009 murder of Hywel Jones.

Stubbs denies murdering 55-year-old Mr Jones, a CEO, of West Bay Street.
On April 22, 2009, Mr Jones had pulled up in the parking lot of his office when he was approached by a gunman and shot in the head as he was getting out of his Chevrolet Equinox jeep.

Mr Jones was rushed to Doctors Hospital and died of his injuries two weeks later after being declared brain dead.

Stubbs was taken into custody a year later.

Prosecutors Darnell Dorsette and Basil Cumberbatch alleged that Stubbs was the gunman in an execution-style killing.


However, Stubbs and his attorney Dorsey McPhee deny the claim.


Throughout the trial, the court heard evidence from three witnesses who saw a man near the scene of the crime before and after the shooting.


A construction worker, the prosecution’s main eyewitness, said he saw the man accused of murdering Mr Jones seated on a porch for two hours before hearing gunshots and then spotted the same man running across a nearby field.


The worker said the man had what appeared to be a gun in his hand and soon he heard the sound of a scooter.


John Heney, the business partner of the murdered CEO said he was on a business call in his office when he heard a loud bang and then a second one shortly afterwards.


He said it was the second bang that got his attention as he looked out of a window and saw a slim, tall, dark-skinned man running away across a field from the Compass Point office.


Looking through a second window, he told the court he saw his business partner Hywel Jones lying on the ground of the parking lot in a pool of blood.


The third witness, an ambulance driver who did not identify the accused when he attended an identification parade, said he saw a man of the same described physical characteristics running across the field seconds after hearing gun shots.


The court also heard evidence from police officers who brought a baluster to court which reportedly had the left palm print of the accused.


Mr McPhee told the jury the prosecution had not produced evidence beyond a reasonable doubt and that his client was not a cold blooded murderer.


He questioned the validity of the identifications by the witnesses after a visit to the scene compared to what was testified in court.
He questioned the integrity of the palm print due to what he claimed to be a breach in the chain of custody in the handling of the evidence.


Ms Dorsette said the case was nearly ‘a perfect crime’, and would have remained unsolved had it not been for the palm print found by the police.


She said the accused had not told the court how his print got there despite his claims of never being in the area.


Ms Dorsette told the court that while the defending attorney had made submissions about a conspiracy on the part of the police to put the palm print on the baluster, Mr McPhee had the chance to put it to the witness and did not.


The prosecutor claimed the evidence pointed to Stubbs, a man she said, who claimed never to have been in Gambier but whose palm print was found at the scene.
Justice Charles begins summing up at 10am.