Witness retracts story and murder trial ends in acquittal

Trenton Smith

Trenton Smith was twice tried for the same murder and today he won his freedom. Smith, who was accused of killing Tyrone Castillo in August 2007, was released today when the main witness, the infamous Jervis Valencia, took the stand and told the court he never saw who pulled the trigger and denied giving details to the police. But back in 2007 Valencia told police that he saw Smith pull out a revolver, grab Castillo around the neck and shot him in the back. But during the trial Prosecutor Sheneiza Smith made an application to the court to allow her to treat Valencia as a hostile witness since in her view he had retracted his statement about the shooting. It was granted by Justice Herbert Lord. Smith’s attorney, Hubert Elrington, made a no case submission to the court, arguing that the crown had no evidence linking his client to Castillo’s murder. Justice Lord then directed the jury of eight to acquit Smith of the charge. Back in 2009 Smith was tried for the same murder but the case had ended in a hung jury, unable to reach a verdict. In that trial, Valencia testified that he saw Smith shoot Castillo but Smith had denied the allegations and called an alibi witness. As a result, Smith was given a re-trial and has been behind bars since 2007. In the incident, twenty nine year old Tyrone Castillo was shot multiple times to the upper body.