Everad Nicholls v HM The Queen
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Lord Steyn |
| Judgment Date | 13 December 2000 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2000] UKPC J1213-1 |
| Docket Number | Appeal No. 14 of 2000 |
| Court | Privy Council |
| Date | 13 December 2000 |
[2000] UKPC J1213-1
Present at the hearing:-
Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Lord Steyn
Lord Hoffmann
Lord Hutton
Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough
Privy Council
[Delivered by Lord Steyn]
On 27 August 1996 on a remote part of Saint Vincent called Fanny Mountain, there was a fight involving two rival criminal gangs. Carlon Baptiste suffered a severe 4 inch laceration to his left upper arm, which was inflicted with a cutlass, and he received 5 bullet wounds. After surgery he died in hospital. The police arrested the appellant on the next day. In a statement made under caution he admitted that he had been involved in a fight with the deceased but said that he had reacted with the cutlass to a threat by the deceased, who was armed with a gun, and that in a struggle the gun had gone off accidentally. The appellant was charged with murder. In February 1997 he was tried in the High Court (before Cenac J. and a jury) but the jury could not agree on a verdict. In June 1997 he was retried (again before Cenac J. and a jury). On 11th June 1997 he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He appealed. On 12th January 1998 the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean dismissed his appeal. He appealed to the Privy Council.
The Prosecution Case
It is a distinctive feature of the case that the whole of the direct evidence as to the circumstances in which the deceased sustained his fatal injuries came from members of two criminal gangs They cultivated marijuana on nearby parts of the mountain and lived in separate shacks in close proximity. There was a history of trouble between the two gangs. Both gangs possessed firearms and cutlasses. The flash point of trouble on the day in question was apparently that the deceased had gone to fetch water close to the shack in which the appellant and his gang lived.
Three members of the deceased's gang gave direct evidence on behalf of the prosecution as to what happened. Dillon Baptiste was the deceased's twin brother. He said he had heard the appellant (known as "Float-I") arguing with the deceased in the vicinity of the shack. He heard a single gun shot. He called Anthony Edwards (known as "I-Pa"), who was the leader of the deceased's group. He then heard several shots. He arrived at the scene after the deceased had sustained the wound to his arm and the bullet wounds. He found the deceased in a gravely wounded state. Dillon described how Edwards and a member of his group attacked the shack.
The second prosecution eye-witness was Glenroy Henry (known as "Sweets"). He said that he had gone with the deceased and another member of their gang to fetch water. On the way back the deceased was ahead of him. He heard a shot. Then he heard an argument and recognised the appellant's voice. When he reached the shack he saw the appellant with a gun. The judge's notes of evidence state:-
"I-Pa was in the middle and Southie (Augustine Black) was behind of him with a cutlass. Float-I was backing back. After there Float-I looked around in our direction. Carlon was in front of me. Carlon had his water bucket still on his head. After that he started to shoot up Carlon and after that he take the cutlass and chop him on his hand. The shots hit Carlon and he fall backwards. When Carlon received chop with cutlass he was lying on the ground. Float-I didn't say anything when he shot Carlon."
Glenroy also described the shots, which "sounded to me like ta-ta-ta".
The third prosecution eye-witness was Anthony Edwards ("I-Pa"). He went with a cutlass to the scene of the incident. His account of what happened was follows:-
"As I reached up on the ridge I heard "hold it your mother c-." So I meet Float-I and Southie, Float-I had a gun in front me stick me up and Southie had a cutlass behind my back. I was in the centre of them. Southie behind me, Float-I in front me with gun. Float-I then said "move you mother c-. one ah all you dead this morning" I then said "Dread you go have kill me because I send the men and them for water and they didn't trouble you …"
"Float-I was backing back coming down and I going to Float-I facing him and he facing me. My back was turned to Southie. At that time I didn't see Carlon, Brian or Sweets. We were then on the track – one track to use to go for the water. Then I just see Carlon burst out the track. He had a small bucket on his head. Water was in the bucket. We were still backing down then Float-I turned around and said "You fucker you" and I only hear Brup, brup and Float-I shoot Carlon in his belly. The gun pitch him back over in the track where he was coming from and then I jumped over a little bank and then I heard Float-I say "Southie hand the f- cutlass give me, either you f- dead or you cripple, you mother cunt." Then Southie handed the cutlass to him (Float-I) and Float-I chop Carlon on his hand. Then Float-I and Southie ran and I called out to Dillon and I told him Float-I shot his brother."
He said the appellant shot the deceased from a distance of 25 feet. In cross-examination he said that the deceased and his brother had a gun.
Hermus Adams ("I-Mus") was another prosecution witness. Shortly after the incident he had been in his boat at the beach on the island. He picked up the appellant, Augustine Black and Gideon Lewis and took the three to Kingstown. He described how the appellant washed his skin in the sea. The appellant changed his clothes. The appellant threw something in the water. Adams said that a month before he had been attacked with a gun by the deceased and his brother.
Dr. Roslyn Bascombe-Adams performed a post-mortem examination on the deceased and described the laceration to the upper left arm of the deceased and 5 bullet wounds. Her description of the position of the bullet wounds was as follows:-
"The bullet wounds clearly had entry areas at (1) the left celiac fossa i. e. the left lower side of the abdomen. (2) an entry wound above the navel. Both those entry wounds were angling downwards (3) an entry wound was found at the left hip and this angled posterior laterally i. e. to the back and to the side. (4) an entry wound was also noted at the buttock anus area grazing both sides of the buttock, left and right but none prominent on the right side. This wound was angled anteriorly i. e. to the front. (5) an entry wound to the mid lower left buttock. Also angled anteriorly. Three exit wounds were noted on the lateral side of the scrotum".
Dr. Bascombe-Adams expressed no opinions about the plausibility of the prosecution and defence versions in the light of the bullet wounds. The prosecution called no other expert evidence concerning the wounds in relation to the prosecution and defence versions of the events.
Finally, the prosecution led evidence of a statement made by the appellant before a justice of the peace after his arrest. It read as follows:-
"When we wake up in the morning in the bush at Tawloo, we making some tea, after the tea we start to work in the land. The boy I don't know his name come over to my ground, three of them. As he reach me, he push the shine gun right into me face and say ah long time I want to kill you. So I so frighten I got me cutlass in me hand I wave ah chop after him and we began to wrestle. While we were wrestling I hear the gun fire off and I run, me and me two brethrens. They start to search me and see if I get shot while we were searching me hear them above we taking if he stupid fuh shoot himself, before you shoot the man they began to tear up the shanty. The three ah we, Southie Buddy and me went down on the bay said, then we meet I-Mus, then he carry we up town that is all. I don't know the name of the boy who got chop from me. I hear about three bullets go off. I don't know if the boy get shot."
There was no challenge to the admissibility of this evidence.
The Defence Case
The appellant gave oral evidence broadly in line with the account in his statement. He said:-
"… Three of them came over to my land: I was then weeding the land. I had my cutlass with him. One of my brethren had a cutlass with him. When the boys come over one of them had a gun in his hand. The one who had the gun is called Carlon. I-Pa was one of them. Carlon came over to me and push the gun in my face. He said: "long time I want to kill you Float."
I was so frightened I wave a chop after him like that (witness demonstrates with his hand) the chop caught him on his left hand. I then grab on to the gun and started to wrestle with him. We stand up and wrestle and then we fell on the ground. Then I hear the gun fire off. We still hold on, on to the ground. Then I let go the gun and run and search myself. I search myself to see if I get shot. Then my two brethren run and search me too. I didn't get shot. The gun was on the ground. Then me and Southie and Buddie left and go to the shanty."
The appellant described the attack on the shack, how he fled from the shanty, went down the mountain and was picked up by Adams at the beach. He said he took off his clothes and washed off the blood on his body. In cross-examination, he testified to a struggle with the deceased, and how they had wrestled for possession of the gun. He said that "blood was coming from him onto my shirt". He also said that he had taken off his clothes because there was "plenty" blood on them. He changed into other clothes and threw the blood-stained clothes into the sea. Augustine Black ("Southie") then gave evidence, which supported the appellant's account on the events in the vicinity of the shack, and on the appellant discarding his clothes, washing himself in the sea, and throwing something away.
The summing up and verdict
The case was a relatively short one, the evidence lasting only a day and a half....
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