Sedley Liverpool, called ‘Birdman,’ the other person who had been accused of the 2015 murder of Mocha mechanic Terrence Lanferman, was yesterday discharged of the capital offence after a no-case submission was upheld in his favour.
Prosecutor Seeta Bishundial, however, has given oral notice of the State’s intention to appeal the decision.
Liverpool’s attorney, Ravindra Mohabir, had submitted that the prosecution failed to establish its case against his client for the capital offence and argued in those circumstances that he had nothing to answer to.
Justice Brassington Reynolds, who presided over the trial, agreed and directed the jury to formally return a verdict of not guilty.
The judge said that the insufficiency of evidence on the part of the State was without dispute.
The insufficiency of evidence, the judge said, related to the vital element of intention, which notwithstanding circumstantial evidence, was absent.
It had been the state’s case that by virtue of a caution statement (CS) attributed to Liverpool, he aided the shooter, Kenkassie Lynch, who had been convicted of the murder back in 2019, by showing him (Lynch) where Lanfer-man’s girlfriend lived.
Justice Reynolds said that apart from this, nothing else in the evidence connected Liverpool to the crime.
The Judge said that the CS was virtually “the body and soul” of the State’s case against Liverpool.
The issue which arose, the judge said, was not merely and only one of fact for the jury, but was also of law, regarding the sufficiency of evidence in the case presented by the State to establish a common mind between the shooter and his alleged assistant, Liverpool.
In the circumstances, the judge added, it would be “unfair…if not unsafe” to have the matter sent to the jury, which may have to speculate on that issue.
He thus upheld the no-case submission, ordered the jury to return a not guilty verdict and informed Liverpool that he was free to go.
The trial was heard at the Demerara High Court.
Back in 2019, a jury convicted Lynch of the mechanic’s murder.
He is currently serving a 75-year-sentence.
Lanferman, who was 23-years-old at the time of his death, was shot and killed on the night of June 1, 2015 at his Lot 37 Nelson Street, Mocha, East Bank Demerara home.
In her testimony during the trial, mother of the deceased, Eunice Lanfer-man, had told the court that her son had an issue with ‘Birdman.’
According to a caution statement tendered and admitted at Lynch’s trial, he had told police investigators that he had carried out the act for a man popularly known in the Mocha area as ‘Birdman,’ who had a grievance against Lanferman.
Lanferman sustained two gunshot wounds to the chest and neck.
At the time of the shooting, he was the lone occupant of the bottom flat of the two-storey house, where he resided with his mother.
