Kareem Francis acquitted of charges for 2007 murder

Kareem Francis

At only seventeen years old, Kareem Francis was charged in 2007 for the murder of fifteen year old Jomo Lamb. Today, three years later, Francis walked free of the charge because of a 2009 change in the Indictable Procedure Act which now allows for testimonies to be read in court if the witness is afraid to personally take the stand. That was the case with Shakira Castellanos, who allegedly saw Francis in the vehicle that Lamb’s killers were travelling in. She abstained from testifying because she feared for her life and the jurors were not convinced by the statement that was presented in her absence. So at twenty minutes to four this afternoon, after more than four hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously acquitted Francis of Murder. Lamb was shot five times on April nineteenth 2007, while he rode his bicycle on Kraal Road. The bullets came from a red vehicle that drove by, reversed and came to a stop in front of Lamb. The gunman was then allegedly seen firing the fatal shots from the car window. In his defense, Francis simply denied being anywhere near the scene of the shooting.