Man found guilty of 2011 Father’s Day killing

A unanimous verdict of guilty was declared yesterday for murder accused Codayro Joseph, nearly six years after he gunned down Coldrick Lewis while robbing Clary’s Bar in the Fort Road area on Father’s Day, 2011.
Joseph, who is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, had nothing to say when the jury returned the verdict against him, and he hung his head low as he was escorted out of the courtroom to return to Her Majesty’s Prison where he will remain at least until his sentencing.
During the trial of the 26 year old, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Anthony Armstrong presented several pieces of evidence which he told the jury pointed directly to Joseph being the robber and killer that night.
The evidence included gunshot residue (GSR), which was found on both his hands and his face, and according to a firearm expert who testified, that amount could not have been transferred by a handshake or contamination.
The expert said it must have been because the accused fired the weapon or handled it immediately after it was fired. Another key piece of evidence was a gold ring which Joseph was found with when he was arrested within an hour after the murder and robbery.
The ring belonged to one of the patrons who was robbed at Clary’s Bar. While Joseph’s lawyer Sherfield Bowen said the ring was his client’s and it was on his chain, the DPP said photographs of Joseph which were taken soon after he was taken into custody show something else. In those photographs shared with the jury, the accused was wearing a chain but the ring was not on it. And, the ring was later identified by its owner.
His lawyer had also contended that the scratches on his body were caused by the police dragging him on the ground when they arrested him, but the DPP said those injuries were more consistent with scratches from going through the prickly bushes. Witnesses had said the robber ran into the bushes in the area after the incident.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)