A murder charge against Alexi Ponce was dismissed on Wednesday after Magistrate Tameika Clarke upheld a no-case submission made on his behalf at the Friendship Magistrate’s Court.
Ponce had been before the court in connection with a murder charge arising from an incident at Soesdyke Junction, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
Attorney-at-law Bernard DaSilva, who represented Ponce throughout the preliminary inquiry and paper committal proceedings, submitted a no case submission.
In the written submission, the defence argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution, even if taken at its highest, was unreliable and did not meet the legal threshold required for the matter to proceed.
The defence relied on the principles in R v Galbraith, which guide courts on when a case should be stopped where there is no evidence or where the evidence is too weak for a properly directed jury to convict.
The defence further argued that the prosecution failed to establish the core elements of murder, including that Ponce unlawfully killed the deceased and acted with malice aforethought.
According to the submission, the defence maintained that there was no evidence that Ponce stabbed anyone. It also cited the post-mortem findings, which recorded the cause of death as perforation of the kidneys due to a stab wound to the back.
The defence also pointed to CCTV footage tendered by the prosecution, arguing that the recording supported Ponce’s account of what unfolded and showed that he was not the aggressor.
In the submission, DaSilva argued that the prosecution’s evidence was “tenuous,” “inherently weak” and, in some instances, vague. He submitted that the prosecution had failed to establish the elements of murder and that the evidence was not sufficient for a properly directed jury to convict.
The defence also argued that the State had failed to discharge its burden of proof at the prima facie stage of the proceedings and asked that Ponce be discharged.
Magistrate Clarke upheld the no-case submission and discharged Ponce from the murder charge.
