Darrington Lauriano found not guilty of murder

But while Saida’s murder is yet to be solved, in the Supreme Court today, twenty-two year old Darrington Lauriano was found not guilty of a Murder charge in the fatal shooting of Kareem “Butchie” Broaster on January fifteenth, 2004. It took the jury of ten women and two men about four hours to return the not guilty verdict. This is the second time that Lauriano was tried for the same incident. In the first case in July 2006, the jury was unable to reach a verdict so a retrial was ordered. After the verdict today, the trial judge, Justice Oswell Legall, told Lauriano that he was free to go but Lauriano will still be behind bars for a pending charge of wounding. Lauriano had given an oral confession and a written statement to the police, which the prosecution, led by Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez, relied upon. But in court he testified that he gave police the written statement because he was pressured and beaten and he fabricated the story because it was what the police wanted to hear. He did not admit or deny that he gave the oral statement. Both statements were admitted into evidence after a voire dire was held to determine their admissibility. Lauriano claimed in court that at the time of the incident, he was at Lord Banks and there were no eye witnesses who testified to the shooting. Broaster was shot multiple times on North Creek Road after he and another person got into a misunderstanding over gang insignia. Lauriano was represented by attorney Carlo Mason.