Murderer guilty, sentencing next 

Facunda Guerrero was clearly disappointed when he was found guilty of murder and remanded back to prison yesterday afternoon, pending his sentence. 
And, if there was any doubt as to whether his facial expression meant he was dissatisfied, his lawyer cleared that up, telling the court that they were disappointed with the verdict of the 12-member jury which made the decision after hearing evidence from numerous witnesses over the past month.
The 41-year-old man was represented by Sherfield Bowen.
Justice Keith Thom has set sentencing for September 28, the same date that Angel Manuel Maldonado Nieves would also be sentenced for his role in the chopping incident which resulted in the death of Miguel Olivero, 37, on October 27, 2013 at a bar on Dickenson Bay Street.
Nieves had pleaded guilty to the murder in early July, after only three days on trial and being identified by witnesses who recounted the violent, bloody nature of the cutlass attack.
Having pleaded guilty, Nieves was remanded to prison and his sentencing was set for September 28, 2018, while the jury trial continued against his co-accused Guerrero, who denied killing Olivera.
Guerrero  said he was not involved in the incident in any way, and neither did he incite the attack. He said this while giving an unsworn statement at the High Court trial.
An eyewitness, who knew the deceased and one of the convicted men, earlier testified that he was at the bar sitting at the counter between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. on the day of the incident and then someone came and touched him on his back.
He said that when he turned around he saw the convicts armed with cutlasses and the victim had a knife in his hand.
According to him, the cutlass wielding men started attacking the victim who picked up a bar stool and was trying to fend them off, and although he had the knife in his hand, he didn’t use it.
The witness said that he too tried to stop the attack by using a stool and also by throwing bottles at the cutlass wielding men. The court heard that the victim then ran out of the bar and his attackers pursued him.
Another witness had stated earlier that he was at a restaurant on Popeshead Street when the victim came around the corner and fell in the middle of the road in the vicinity of AJ’s Smokehouse.
The man said the victim then got up and ran over to the line shop at the corner. The witness noted that at the same time he saw two “Spanish guys running coming from around the corner” and when the victim saw the men, he raised his hands in the air but they proceeded to chop him in a “brutal attack”.
According to the witness, “the short thick man was the more aggressive” in that he dealt the victim chops to his head, neck and hands; while the “tall skinny one” dealt him chops to the legs and back.
A report from Pathologist Dr. Lester Simon stated that Olivero’s cause of death was exsanguination since he had lost so much blood due to the numerous injuries.
Overall, the victim had 27 to 30 lacerations. One of the wounds to the head fractured the skull and exposed the brain and two chops to his left arm also fractured bones.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Anthony Armstrong and Crown Counsel Shannon Jones-Gittens prosecuted the case which was defended by attorneys Ralph Francis and Bowen who represented Nieves and Guerrero respectively.