Trio Acquitted of Murder Charge in Shooting Death of Boxer

Three men who have been on remand for murder just over a year were today told that they could leave the courtroom free men. Daniel Caine, Bart Lucas and Oscar Flores were accused of the October 2014 murder of Harrison Smith, but one year after, Police were unable to present the court with any evidence to support the charge of murder. Additionally, attorney Oscar Selgado, who represented Flores and Lucas, claims that surveillance footage shows that his clients were in a restaurant when the murder occurred some distance away. Today, Selgado told us that based on what police had…the men should not even have been arrested.

Oscar Salgado, Attorney

Oscar Selgado

“I have made repeated requests for full and proper disclosure. That included what we know is the recording from the Chon Sing restaurant that we know about and that has not been available. Further statement from the police show that indeed my clients Oscar Flores and Bart Lucas and Mr. Cain were at Chon sing restaurant at the precise time the shooting took place. So even at the highest the police evidence was that one alleged eye witness placed two of the men at the crime scene and that was not sustained at all. And that was coming from the police themselves because a police constable gave testimony to the police which place the men at Chon Sing restaurant at the precise time of the shooting. So they could not have logically been at both places at the same time; at the restaurant and at the shooting scene. But because the case file was not properly prepares and submitted to the court; the chief magistrate in her authority dismissed the charges against all three accused. The D.P.P. has the right to appeal and to relay charges providing there is new evidence. I personally do not see where the new evidence will come from and I hold that what the chief magistrate did was the proper and fit thing to do in this occasion.”

Salgado says that this year alone he has successfully defended seven murder trials, and he makes reference to a backlog of cases which has tied Police hands and made it difficult for them to make the transition from arrest to prosecution.