A Laventille man has been cleared of murder after the State’s main witness admitted he had lied about seeing the crime.
Ashton “Doi Doi” Medina, who spent more than 16 years in prison awaiting trial, was found not guilty of murder, attempted murder, and shooting with intent during a judge-alone trial before Justice Trevor Jones earlier this week.
Medina had been charged with killing 20-year-old Kenroy Joseph on April 26, 2009. Joseph, from Prizgar Lands, Laventille, was driving through Success Village when someone shot at his vehicle. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police arrested Medina a few days later after Joseph’s friend, Jason Hilarie, claimed he saw Medina fire the shots. Hilarie repeated that story during the preliminary inquiry but changed it during the trial, admitting he had made it up. He told the court he and Medina were members of rival gangs and that he had waited three days to go to the police so he could practice his false statement.
Under cross-examination by Medina’s lawyers—Senior Counsel John Heath and Karunaa Bisramsingh—Hilarie also said he had visited Medina in prison before the trial to confess and relieve his conscience.
Despite his admission, prosecutors succeeded in having Hilarie declared a hostile witness, which allowed them to use his earlier police statement and inquiry testimony.
In their final arguments, Medina’s attorneys questioned the reliability of Hilarie’s identification and highlighted that police never investigated Medina’s alibi—that he was smoking marijuana with a friend on the Eastern Main Road when the shooting occurred.
Justice Jones ultimately focused on the timing of events. Hilarie said he left home after receiving a text from Joseph around 9:34 a.m., and police responded to the shooting only six minutes later. Hilarie also maintained that it took him about 30 minutes to walk from his home to the scene, a claim that was never challenged and not contradicted by any other witness.
Given the timeline and the lack of additional evidence linking Medina to the crime, Justice Jones concluded he could not be sure of Medina’s guilt and acquitted him.
