Cop freed of murder charge
Published:Saturday | December 16, 2023 | 12:09 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Constable Vaughn Daley, who shot and killed a man who was reportedly trying to rape a woman in St Thomas in 2009, has been acquitted of murder.
The lawman, who was assigned to the Special Branch unit, was freed on Thursday after a seven-member jury found him not guilty of murder in the Home Circuit Court.
Daley was being tried for the August 2009 shooting death of Kentan Harakh before Justice Calys Wiltshire.
The prosecution led evidence that on August 29, 2009, Daley was on his way to work along the Prospect main road in the early morning, when he observed an altercation between Harakh and two females, who are residents of Prospect district in St Thomas.
Daley intervened in the incident in which Harakh was accused of attacking two females.
The Crown further alleged that during Daley’s intervention, he shot and killed Harakh, who the sole eyewitness said was unarmed.
Daley, however, maintained that he was attacked by the man, who was armed with a knife, and that he acted in self-defence.
During the trial, however, one of the prosecution’s witnesses alleged that Harakh was beaten with a piece of stick and rocks because he tried to rape two women.
However, the prosecution’s expert witness disagreed and indicated that there were no injuries caused by stick observed on Harakh’s body or recorded by the postmortem.
Defence counsel, while pointing out several inconsistencies on the Crown’s case, argued that the evidence given by the witness runs parallel with the evidence given by the expert.
Daley was represented by Tom Tavares-Finson, KC, and Marcus Moore.
The Crown was represented by Crown Counsel Andre Wedderburn.