A JUDGE'S failure to caution a 12-year-old witness on the importance of an oath has led to the Court of Appeal ordering a retrial for a 50-year-old St. James man who was convicted of murder.
Calva Williams, who was represented by attorney-at-law Janet Nosworthy, had appealed on the ground that the trial judge did not caution the main witness for the Crown on the importance of an oath or the moral obligation to tell the truth.
When the appeal came for hearing on Monday Paula Llewellyn, Acting Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions conceded that the judge should have cautioned the witness.
The Court of Appeal comprising the Hon. Ian Forte, President of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Justice Donald Bingham and Mr. Justice Algernon Smith, upheld the appeal. The court set aside the sentence of life imprisonment and ordered a new trial.
Williams was convicted last year in the St. James Circuit Court of the murder of Roy Graham.
Evidence was given that shortly after Graham parked his jeep in a yard on October 25, 2000, Williams and another man pulled Graham out of the jeep. The men used machete and sticks to beat Graham who subsequently died from the injuries.
