By Samantha Simon
All four defendants accused of murdering Bruce ‘Yankee’ Greenaway celebrated their freedom as they left court yesterday after being declared not guilty when Justice Colin Williams upheld the ‘no case’ submission made by their attorneys.
Police officer Jason Modeste and Defence Force soldiers Shakiel Thomas, Armal Warner, and Aliyah Martin heard the ruling one day after the final witness gave testimony in the three-month trial.
The father-of-two was last seen on April 9 2020, reportedly in the company of the accused as they transported him in a maroon police pick-up.
Greenaway’s body was found at Indian Creek on April 14 2020, after having been reported missing several days prior by family members.
After post mortem examinations, it was concluded that he died due to strangulation, as there were multiple bruises and injuries corresponding with this cause of death.
Witness testimony placed Greenaway in the custody of police officers after he was picked up during Covid-19 curfew hours outside a relative’s home where he had allegedly gone to drop off groceries.
Greenaway was allegedly intoxicated at the time, and was taken to the Dockyard Police Station in the back of a police vehicle with his wrists bound by ties, after which he was placed into the custody of the four accused who were about to go on patrol.
In statements from the four defendants given to the investigator, they claimed that during their patrol Modeste left the vehicle at a corner in Piccadilly, with one specifying that they heard Greenaway from the back of the pick-up, saying something akin to “right here” and his zip ties were cut before he was released with a warning regarding being out during curfew hours.
Video footage acquired from security cameras along the route showed the pick-up passing with a male matching Greenaway’s description in it and returning approximately 30 minutes later without said individual.
Greenaway’s body was later discovered face down at the edge of the water by farmers who raised animals in the area.
Upon examination by a medical officer, Dr Rasheda Gilmore Charles, it was noted that the body was that of an adult male in a prone position face down with the odour of decomposition and red bruising on the right hand and posterior trunk.
During the official post-mortem examination performed by Dr Lester Simon, bruising was discovered on the man’s left back centre, below the left buttocks, on left and right forearm, the underside of the chest plate and within the pelvic area.
A fracture of the cartilage of the upper bone connected to the thyroid cartilage was also found, leading to the conclusion that he had died by strangulation.
The identity of the body was confirmed by multiple family members prior to the post-mortem, with one relative stating that, despite the degree of decomposition, the Greenaway family had an extremely distinct facial structure. This was further confirmed with DNA testing.
The defence argued that evidence presented as well as testimony by the 31 witnesses not only failed to place Martin at the scene of Indian Creek, but also did not show any conclusive evidence pinpointing the primary perpetrator of the murder.
Justice Colin Williams, prior to announcing his decision, referenced a number of previous cases involving multiple defendants where evidence could not definitively prove the identity of the primary perpetrator in the case of joint enterprise, nor could a suspect be proved to have been at the scene of the crime or be an active participant in the crime in any capacity.
Furthermore, it was stated that the circumstantial nature of the evidence and witness testimonies could not exclude other possibilities to allow the jury to narrow the act down to a singular possibility, leaving too much room for a miscarriage of justice.
The prosecution was also unable to prove without reasonable doubt the day on which Greenaway died, who performed the act of strangulation and if they were assisted in any way by another of the accused, or even that all of the accused were present at the time of the murder, causing the jury to be unable to pass down a conviction.
After considering these factors, Justice Williams handed down his verdict, upholding the submission of ‘no case’ stating that a conviction was not more important than a miscarriage of justice against an innocent individual.
