Judge Says Complacency Caused Collapse of Double Murder Trial

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – A Supreme Court judge has blasted prosecutorial complacency for the collapse of a double murder trial in a recently released ruling.

Justice Dale Fitzpatrick directed jurors to acquit Lloyd Minnis and Perry Pickering of the September 2017 murders of eight-year-old Eugene Woodside Jr and 23-year-old Dennis Moss after prosecutors failed to meet multiple deadlines set by the court.

Fitzpatrick said prosecutors “missed without explanation, three court imposed deadlines for filing an application to permit a witness to testify anonymously.”

The witness was the prosecution’s only witness to the alleged murders.

After failing to meet the time-limit for making the application, Justice Fitzpatrick ordered that witness testify without anonymity.

The order was not appealed.

But when the matter was called for trial on December 1, the prosecution presented an unfiled application for the witness to testify anonymously, which was refused.

Justice Fitzpatrick said the prosecution was aware that the witness wanted to testify since November 27, 2017, but the office did not file any application until eight years later.

He said the prosecution also never provided an explanation for missing the three deadlines for the filing of the applications.

He said, “The prosecution simply disregarded the deadlines suggesting a culture of complacency under some misguided view that the application could be brought at any time with impunity.”