Another Murder Suspect Walks Free

Nicholas Swazo

A second suspect in the murder of a Mennonite businessman four years ago walked free today. On October seventh, 2011, Wendelin Reimer was shot and killed during a robbery at Eagle One Hardware Store located at mile four and a half on the Phillip Goldson Highway. While the robbery cost him his life, the robbers made away with a mere one hundred and seventy-five dollars. Footage from a surveillance camera led to the arrest of two of three men believed to have committed the murder. Today, the second suspect, twenty-nine year old Nicholas Swazo, was acquitted of murder. His acquittal came after Judge Adolph Lucas was not convinced that the man seen in the footage was Swazo and police could not properly identify him as the gunman.  In his defense, Swazo gave evidence that he was at home at the time of the murder with his common-law-wife and a friend. In the trial by judge without jury, Swazo was represented by Attorney Christelle Wilson.

Christelle Wilson

Christelle Wilson, Attorney

“He has been on remand for about four years for the murder of Mister Reimer who was the owner of the Eagle One Hardware Store and today he walked out of the court room a free man, acquitted of the charges of murder. So we are very happy to have received those results.”

Reporter

“Talk about the case and what evidence the prosecution believed they had against your client?”

Christelle Wilson

“They had actually charged two men with this crime of murder and one of the men, Ernest Staine, was acquitted earlier in the trial on the grounds that they did not have any evidence to show that Staine had the mental intention to commit murder. But what the prosecution claimed they had against my client was the surveillance footage taken from the Eagle One Hardware Store which they had a witness, Officer Jemmott, who claimed that he was able to identify my client as being the person on the footage because he knew him for fifteen plus years.”

Reporter

“Talk to us about how you defended your client against this?”

Christelle Wilson

“Well my client has always maintained to me that he could not have been at the scene. He always had an alibi defense, but because we had to tackle the identification being put forward by the prosecution, we had to prove that Officer Jemmott was not in a position to make a positive identification of Nicholas Swazo. There was conflicting evidence coming from Jemmott and the other prosecution witnesses that were brought to back up his story; in that he did not actually know the client for the past fifteen years and he did not see him as often as he said he would have seen him. So what the defense put forward is that for you to be able to make a positive identification on a surveillance footage of somebody you claim to know, you have to be able to prove to the judge, to the jury, to the court, that you actually really know that person and you know them for some time that you cannot be mistaken when you are making that identification. And as you heard from the judge, the prime witness who would have sealed the fate of the defendant was not able to satisfy the judge that he would have been able to make a positive identification.”

Another suspect, twenty-five year old Ernest Staine was also freed on August eighteenth, 2015 after a no-case submission was upheld on his behalf.