NASSAU- A judge has refused to dismiss a murder charge against a man accused of beating another man to death, although an autopsy said he died from cardiac arrest.
Hosnell Samuels is accused of murdering Leonardo Joseph on January 6, 2017.
Prosecutors allege that Joseph died after a fight with Samuels at Golden Isles Road.
However, the pathologist Dr Kiko Bridgewater, in an autopsy performed on January 12, found that Joseph died from cardiac arrest.
Dr Bridgewater determined that the blunt force injuries to Joseph’s face were “not significant enough to directly cause death.”
Public defenders Dorsey McPhee and Brendalee Rae argued that Samuels’ continued prosecution would be an abuse of process. As a result, they asked Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson to dismiss the indictment.
However, the prosecutor Eucal Bonaby said the application was unfounded. Bonaby argued that it was solely the remit of the Director of Public Prosecutions to bring and end cases. He submitted that the application to dismiss the charge should be made at the end of the prosecution’s case.
Justice Grant-Thompson agreed. She ruled, “I have no responsibility for how prosecutions are bought, that is the role of the DPP.
“I do not consider that the facts disclosed an abuse of the process nor is it oppressive or vexatious. Therefore, I will not exercise my power to intervene. I have gently guided counsel for the DPP with a firm hand relative to these issues in case managements prior to trial.
“ I await the facts at trial or an administrative decision of the DPP, but I will not usurp his function.”
