By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAN will be retried on three attempted murder charges after Court of Appeal judges yesterday quashed his directed acquittal.
Rafik Turnquest, 30, had to surrender himself to custody because of the appellate court’s decision to order a retrial upon allowing the Crown’s appeal against a judge’s decision to acquit him of the three charges after a no case submission was made at his trial in 2013.
The court accepted the Crown’s argument that the issue of identification concerning an April 8, 2011, shooting incident ought to have been left to the jury even if the judge’s concerns were valid.
Turnquest stood trial before Justice Vera Watkins in January 2013 accused of trying to kill a woman, her son and her nephew. It was alleged that he tried to murder Joane Forbes, Jamalio Forbes and Arnold Stubbs.
However, days into the case, the judge told the jury that her direction to acquit Turnquest was a result of closed discussions between herself, defending counsel and the prosecution.
Justices Abdulai Conteh, Jon Isaacs and Stella Crane-Scott gave the ruling in yesterday’s appeal proceedings.
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