Roaring Creek Resident Acquitted of 2011 Murder

Twenty-three-year-old Jamie Gill was accused of fatally shooting sixteen-year-old Raheem Vasquez in 2011 during an incident in Roaring Creek.  Vasquez was shot three times to the body, twice in the abdomen and once in the left part of the chest.  Tonight, he is home free after being on remand for more than three years.  Last Friday, a jury of twelve persons retired to the deliberating room and shortly before two o’clock, announced that Gill was not guilty of the murder due to self-defense proven during the trial.  Gill was represented by legal aid attorneys Michelle Trapp-Zuniga and Baja Shoman.  Prosecutor Javier Chan called as many as eleven witnesses during the trial, but Trapp-Zuniga and Shoman used a caution statement given by Gill to seal their conviction. In that caution statement to police, Gill stated that he acted in self-defense and fear of his own life when he fatally shot and killed Vasquez.  Furthermore, Gill said that on the day of the incident, he and a friend were on a picado road when Vasquez and another person rode up on a bicycle. One of the men pulled out a firearm and that’s when Gill’s friend, who was armed with a machete, pulled out a machete and placed it to the head of the Vasquez’s friend.  He then chopped Vasquez’s friend on his hand with the machete.  The friend with the gun fell to the ground and that’s when Vasquez reportedly placed Gill in a choke hold.   Gill somehow got hold of the gun and, fearing for his life, shot Vasquez three times to the body.