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Pook Brothers Cleared, Years Later
posted (March 6, 2019)
The brothers: 30 year-old Michael Pook, 29 year-old Ryan Pook, and 26 year-old Adrian Pook, all charged for murder, are free men tonight after their attorneys convinced Justice Colin Williams to grant a stay of proceedings against them.

Up until last month, when they were granted bail, The Pook brothers had been on remand at the prison for 7 years and 9 months. They were charged with the May 2011 murder of the taxi driver, Errol "Lighter" Ferguson, which occurred near the complex building on Mahogany Street.

They stood trial without a jury in front of Justice Troadio Gonzalez, and the case concluded in December 2015. In all that time, the judge has not delivered a verdict and has since gone into retirement.

So, attorneys Leeroy Banner and Leslie Mendez submitted to Justice Colin Williams that their clients have suffered a breach of their constitutional rights because they were entitled to a criminal trial within a reasonable time. They added that it would be prejudicial against them to subject them to a retrial because the main witness has passed away, and in the 2015 trial, he was treated as a hostile witness by the prosecution.

Justice Williams upheld the submissions from the defense and granted the stay of proceedings, which basically frees them of the murder charge.

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