Japhet Bennett’s Murder Conviction Squashed

Japhet Bennett

The Caribbean Court of Justice handed down two significant rulings today. As a result of the first, twenty-four-year-old Japhet Bennett is a free man tonight after spending close to a decade in prison. He was released from the Belize Central prison late this evening at the hands of his family and his attorney. His release comes hours after the Caribbean Court of Justice squashed his murder conviction in a ruling delivered this afternoon. Bennett had been behind bars since 2009 nine for the murder of Ellis “Pepper Gacho” Meighan whose murder he was convicted for in 2013. Bennett was sentenced to life in prison and his sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal. But due to new laws, Bennett had the opportunity to be re-sentenced. His attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd and Anthony Sylvestre, however, sought that his murder conviction be squashed based on the testimony of the key witness. In the original trial Marlon Middleton, Meighan’s brother-in-law, recanted his statement to police, saying that he, in fact, did not see Bennett at the crime scene. The jury disregarded Middleton’s testimony and the C.C.J. is of the view that Bennett did not receive a fair trial because the recanted hearsay statement was highly unreliable and should not have been admitted into evidence.

Justice David Hayton, Judge, C.C.J.

“The majority of found that in this case, at the close of the prosecution case there had been no evidential material which could allowed the jury to properly to (inaudible) reliability of the statement. For that reason the trial judge should have upheld the no case submission, directing the jury to acquit Bennett. In a separate judgment, Justice Barrow came to same conclusion. He explained there was no use for value in Mr. Middleton’s description of the shooter, his attire and the gun because there was no other evidence to confirm any of these. He concluded that on the evidence ‘the jury would have been left to guess and could only reach a guilty verdict on a gut feeling’. This is a very short summary of what was said and what you can find in the judgment.  The conclusion of this was four out of five judges concluded that the appeal was allowed and that the conviction  must be squashed.”

Meighan was fatally shot to the head and back while he was on Banak Street in September 2009. He died on the spot.