In May of 2012, Gareth Hemmans Jr. and Miguel Zaiden had a fight over a woman - which ended with Hemmans allegedly chopping Zaiden four times in the arms and elbow. In 2016, Hemmans was convicted of attempted murder in a trial without jury presided over by Justice Adolph Lucas.
But Hemmans appealed and his attorney Anthony Sylvester argued three grounds on which the conviction should be quashed. This morning, the President of the Court of Appeal, JUSTICE Manuel Sosa presented the court's judgement. He agreed with Sylvester and overturned the conviction, setting Hemmans free. Sylvestre spoke to us outside the courtroom:
Anthony Sylvestre, attorney
"The appellant Mr. Hemmans, he was convicted some while back in October 2016 before Justice Lucas in a trial without a jury on the charge of attempted murder and we appealed. His appeal came on in June of last year and the court having considered and look at our grounds that we had raised, agreed with us that his conviction was quashed. The sentence set aside and the court went further and entered a verdict of not guilty, so Mr. Hemmans is free to leave the court precincts and go home to his family."
Hemmans cannot be tried again for this crime.
Sylvestre had not yet had a chance to read the judgement and could not say on what grounds the appeal succeeded.
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