Jury acquits accused murderer

A jury of eleven women and one man deliberated for almost four hours before it found Leonard “Ghost” Myers not guilty of the murder of fourteen year old Rodney Conorquie. Myers also faced two counts each of Attempted Murder and Aggravated Assault but was found not guilty of all charges. Conorquie was fatally shot on December sixth, 2006 while he and his friend, seventeen year old Raheem Magana, were in a yard on Banak Street. The gunman fired a number of shots, seven of them hitting Conorquie in his chest, right arm and right thigh. He died while undergoing surgery at K.H.M.H. Magana, who is believed to have been the gunman’s target, was not injured. Magana was the only eye witness to the shooting but he did not testify in the trial. Three police officers who were returning from prison testified that they saw a man running across Cemetery Road to Fuller’s Alley and they identified Myers as that man. Special constable Smith testified that he told the man to freeze but the suspect instead turned around and fired shots at him but missed. But Justice Lucas, in his summation of the case, said that the police officers only got a fleeting glance of the person and the identification was not a good one. Myers gave a statement from the dock, saying that at the time of the incident he was at Fuller’s Alley with some friends and he ran when heard gunshots. Cindy Smart, Myers’ cousin, testified and upheld his alibi statement. Myers was represented by attorneys Dickie Bradley and Ashanti Martin. Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez represented the prosecution.