Antonio Smith, one of three men who had been accused of murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, while the trial against his co-accused, Trevor Boston and Jamary Christian, commenced in the High Court yesterday.
Smith, who was 21 years old when Steve Reynolds Mingo was killed on February 21, 2009, was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison and will be sentenced after the murder trial concludes.
Yesterday, the prosecution called nine witnesses who took the stand, to include the deceased man’s neighbour, sisters, and one of Boston’s friends who was taken into custody after the shooting death.
Mingo’s then neighbour, Jan Bright-Jarvis testified that she was standing in the washroom in her yard which is just about 20 feet from the victim’s home when she saw two men jumping Mingo’s galvanised fence, which she described as about three and a-half feet high.
The witness, who said she knew the deceased for more than 15 years, testified that she watched the men, one of whom was carrying a gun in his hand. Within “two to three seconds” the neighbour said she heard three successive explosions before seeing the men
“scattering” out of the yard, and Mingo running out of the house.
“They were both jumping over the fence at the same time, so it was a scramble,” she said. “When I saw Mingo, I dialled 911, I [ran] down the road, Mr Mingo collapsed; he was dead,” she said.
The woman said she was able to identify one of the men because she knew him since he was a child.
More in today’s Daily Observer.