ALMOST two decades after he was charged with manslaughter in the death of a 15-year-old boy during a stabbing incident at the Scarborough port, a Tobago man has been freed after a High Court judge upheld a no-case submission in his favour.
Keyon Harry was before Justice Sherene Murray-Bailey in the Scarborough High Court. Harry was 14 at the time of the incident which led to the death of Haley Price on October 22, 2005.
At the time, Harry was charged with manslaughter and not murder after an inquest by coroner Joan Eversley-Gill in 2008.
On June 21, Murray-Bailey directed a Tobago jury of nine to return a not-guilty verdict in Harry’s favour after she upheld a no-case submission by his attorneys Michelle Gonzalez and Ayanna Norville of the Public Defenders’ Department.
The trial in the Scarborough High Court started on June 10. Prosecutors Taterani Seecharan and Josanne Forrester called several witnesses.
However, at the close of the State’s case, Gonzales and Norville submitted Harry had no case to answer, as the State failed to prove the killing was unlawful.
They pointed to evidence by prosecution witnesses whose testimony raised the element of self-defence which the State did not disprove. They also reminded of the law on self-defence, maintaining that someone who is attacked is entitled to defend themselves reasonably.
In answer, the prosecutors said self-defence was an issue for the jury’s consideration.
In her ruling, Murray-Bailey agreed the State did not prove Harry acted unreasonably.
It was the State’s case that on the day of the incident – a Saturday – Harry was at the Scarborough port with two friends when one stopped to talk to a girl they knew from school.
While waiting, a man approached Harry and asked if Harry “had something with his nephew.”
The man left and returned with a group of men, some adults. Price was one of the members of that group and was encouraged to slap Harry.
The teenager did so and launched a beer bottle at his head. The boys began struggling and Price reached for another bottle.
It was alleged before the fight was parted, Harry stabbed Price twice in the back. Price died later that night in hospital.
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