Nearly four years after 67-year-old Catherine Pickering was gunned down while her daughter was robbed at their home in Paraquita Bay, about a dozen spectators sat in High Court on Tuesday afternoon waiting to hear the jury’s decision about the man accused of killing her.
When Akeem Hopkinson was found guilty of murder and three other crimes, he remained mostly expressionless while some attendees broke down in tears.
The verdict closed a three-week trial that also saw the release of co-accused Shameek Grant last week following a successful no-case submission by his attorney.
Facing the verdict
On Tuesday, Mr. Hopkinson faced the verdict alone after weeks of testimony about the night Ms. Pickering was gunned down.
The shooting took place on the evening of April 18, 2021, after Ms. Pickering’s daughter Maricel Pickering arrived at the Paraquita Bay residence the two shared, prosecutors have said.
On exiting her car and hearing a male voice say, “Give me the money,” she threw her bag containing $2,950 onto the pavement and ran for safety as gunshots rang out, according to the crown.
Her mother, who had heard the commotion and come outside to see what was happening, was shot in the head and chest, prosecutors have said.
She died from her injuries the next day.
Ten days later, Messrs. Hopkinson and Grant were arrested and charged with murder and other crimes in connection with the fatal robbery.
Evidence
During their three-week trial this month in High Court, the prosecution called more than a dozen witnesses as part of a case Principal Crown Counsel Kellee-Gai Smith said included five main “strands” of evidence:
• CCTV footage, which included videos of the home of Messrs. Hopkinson and Grant before and after the robbery and of Big Brother’s Gas Station and Crystal’s Nightclub the night of the robbery;
• forensic evidence including DNA that prosecutors said linked Mr. Hopkinson to a loaded magazine found in his closet;
• Maricel Pickering’s eyewitness testimony;
• cellphone site information allegedly showing Mr. Hopkinson’s location at the time of the shooting; and
• lies Mr. Hopkinson allegedly told police during interviews about his access to a firearm and his movements during the time of the robbery.
The crown also submitted into evidence a magazine identical to the banana clip that is used for an AK-47 — the type of gun allegedly used for the shooting — containing four live rounds. Prosecutors said the clip was found in Mr. Hopkinson’s closet, though they acknowledged that the gun itself was never found.
No-case submissions
Ultimately, the evidence wasn’t enough to convict Mr. Grant. After the Crown closed its case on Feb. 13, defence attorneys Valerie Gordon, who represented Mr. Grant, and Stacy Abel, who represented Mr. Hopkinson, both filed no-case submissions for their clients. Mr. Grant’s submission was successful, and he was released on Feb. 18 after the judge directed the jury to render not-guilty verdicts on all four charges against him.
This week, Ms. Gordon explained her successful no-case submission for Mr. Grant.
“The crown presented evidence that Grant was home in his bedroom when the robbery and murder took place,” Ms. Gordon told the Beacon, adding, “There was no link between Grant and the firearm or the magazine, the robbery or the murder. [The] court found no evidence to call Grant to answer to the charges on the indictment.”
Before Mr. Grant left the courtroom, Justice Rajiv Persad spoke to him directly.
“This system isn’t always about the truth: It’s about determining the evidence if someone is guilty,” the judge said.
He added that the public will never know exactly what really happened the night of April 18, 2021, but he said Mr. Grant now has an “opportunity for the rest of his life.”
Director of Public Prosecutions Tiffany Scatliffe-Esprit did not immediately respond to a query about whether her office plans to appeal the court’s decision on Mr. Grant’s no-case submission.
Closing statement
The no-case submission for Mr. Hopkinson was not accepted, and his trial continued into this week.
During her closing statement last Thursday, Ms. Smith acknowledged that the prosecution used circumstantial evidence to build its case. Though each of the five individual “strands” may not be enough to render a guilty verdict on its own, she added, the evidence should be considered together.
“When you pull the strands together, they become sufficient,” Ms. Smith said.
Though she acknowledged that the AK-47 allegedly used to kill Ms. Pickering was not found, she told jurors this fact did not mean that the firearm “was not in play.”
After Ms. Smith concluded, Ms. Abel gave her closing statement on Mr. Hopkinson’s behalf.
She argued that the evidence the crown had brought against her client was not enough, alluding back to Ms. Smith’s “strand” analogy.
“If the rope [isn’t] strong enough, let the rope go,” she advised. “Just leave it alone.”
She also downplayed the significance of the crown’s video evidence, arguing that multiple scooters were on the road the night of the killing and that CCTV footage showed Mr. Hopkinson on the road “where he said he was.”
Ms. Abel added that Mr. Hopkinson claimed during a police interview that he found the magazine police had discovered in his closet on the beach at Cane Garden Bay.
“For whatever reason, he did not report it,” she said. “That does not make him guilty of robbery.”
She concluded by saying, “The prosecution has built their house with sand.”
Deliberations
On Tuesday afternoon, jurors entered deliberations. After about three hours, they returned to the courtroom to deliver a guilty verdict on each of the four counts against Mr. Hopkinson: murder, robbery, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of a prohibited weapon.
The jury appeared to have reached its decision nearly an hour before re-entering the courtroom. Starting around that time, the court repeatedly attempted to contact Mr. Hopkinson’s attorney, Ms. Abel, who had been present in court that morning.
When she didn’t show up, attorney Stephen Daniels held the place for the defence while the jury delivered the verdicts.
The judge noted that the absence was uncharacteristic of Ms. Abel, who did not respond to a request for comment by Beacon press time.
Mr. Hopkinson was subsequently scheduled to return to court for a sentencing hearing on March 7. The judge, noting that Ms. Abel had previously indicated she wanted a social inquiry report to be completed if he were found guilty, ordered the report to be completed by March 6.
Ms. Smith said that victim impact statements would be prepared as well.
The following Monday, March 10, Mr. Hopkinson is expected to be sentenced.
Others charged
Over the course of the investigation into the robbery and shooting, six other people — four men and two women — were charged with other crimes in connection with the incident.
The two women, Teffiny Smith and Tyann Smith, pleaded guilty to assisting offenders for allegedly hiding the firearm used in the offence, which was never recovered, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Three of the men — K’Shoy Alexander, Richard Haripersad and Jordan Jackson — pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon. The fourth man, Shemar Richardson, pleaded guilty to robbery.
The four men appeared in court yesterday for a sentencing hearing, and the judge is scheduled to sentence them on March 7 after considering submissions from the prosecution and defence attorneys.
Also during the sentencing hearing, Mr. Richardson — a former friend of the Pickering family who was accused of sharing information that facilitated the robbery — took the stand to express his remorse.
“Maricel Pickering and Catherine Pickering, they were good to me,” said Mr. Richardson, who worked for the family at Big Brother’s Gas Station.
After a long pause, he added, “They were good people, and I’m really sorry that [incident] took place.”
Following Mr. Richardson’s statement, the prosecutor quoted Maricel Pickering’s victim impact statement.
“‘We gave [Mr. Richardson] a roof over his head, a job, … love,’” Ms. Smith read.
The statement also noted that Mr. Richardson could have warned Maricel Pickering about the planned robbery before it occurred.
“‘Instead, he let me walk into that horror,’” Ms. Pickering wrote, according to the prosecutor.
Mr. Richardson was remanded to prison on April 27, 2021, and remains in custody, according to his attorney.
