Josue Carillo Perez was taken into
custody minutes after 5pm on Monday, 15 March, after the Crown won its appeal
against the not guilty verdict in his trial for the murder of Martin Gareau in
May 2008.
Sir John Chadwick, president of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal, ordered that Mr. Perez be produced to a Grand Court the next day (Tuesday) so the question of bail could be considered, pending a new trial.
Senior Crown Counsel Trevor Ward
had asked for the remand on the basis that Mr. Perez, a Honduran national, was
a flight risk.
Attorney Anthony Akiwumi, who successfully
defended Perez in Grand Court
last September-October, argued against custody. He pointed out that Mr. Perez
had known since November that the Crown was appealing, but he had not left
Cayman. Moreover, his attendance in court on Monday for the appeal had been
purely voluntary.
Mr. Perez had chosen to be tried by
judge alone. Justice Roy Anderson delivered his not guilty verdict on 13
October.
The Crown’s appeal was argued by
David Perry QC.
Grounds of appeal were that the
judge had misdirected himself as to the standard of proof in cases of murder;
that he had permitted himself to engage in speculative theory in regard to the
circumstances surrounding the murder for which there was no evidential foundation;
that the judge had not adequately explained his reasons for his verdict.
Mr. Akiwumi responded on behalf of
Mr. Perez.
The body of Mr. Gareau, a Canadian
national working in Cayman, was found at his home in Beach Bay
on the morning of Tuesday, 20 May 2008, following the long holiday weekend. One
of the issues in the trial was the exact time of his death.
The Court of Appeal spent all of
Monday hearing arguments. A preliminary point was whether the Crown was too
late in bringing the appeal, since the rules refer to a time limit of 14 days
for convicted persons to appeal their conviction.
Sir John heard the arguments with
Justices Ian Forte and Abdullah Conteh. The court will put its reasons in
writing.
See Wednesday’s Caymanian Compass
for complete details.