Furbert and Sheldon Eugenio Franks v. The Queen (Bermuda)

(1) Teiko David Jamel Furbert and

(2) Sheldon Eugenio Franks Appellants

v.

The Queen Respondent

FROM

THE COURT OF APPEAL OF BERMUDA

JUDMENT OF THE LORDS OF THE JUDICIAL

COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL,

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Present at the hearing:-

Lord Steyn

[Delivered by Lord Hutton]

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1. On 6th July 1996 James Caines was killed in Bermuda by a single shot from a gun. The two appellants were jointly charged on an indictment that they, being concerned together, murdered James Caines. The appellants were convicted by a majority verdict of a jury in the Supreme Court on 29th April 1997 and were each sentenced to imprisonment for life. Their appeals against conviction were dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 20th November 1997 and they now appeal by special leave from that decision.

 

The Crown case.

2. The evidence called by the Crown established the following facts. On the evening of 6th July 1996 James Caines was sitting in a room in a house at 27 Curving Avenue in Pembroke with a number of friends. Caines and his friends were drinking and smoking cocaine when shortly after 9.00 p.m. a gun was fired into the room from outside the front of the house. A bullet struck James Caines on his left cheek and exited on the right side of his neck and embedded itself in his right shoulder. On being struck by the bullet Caines ran out through a door in the back of the house into a small garden. Both Franks and Furbert were seen to be in the vicinity of the house both before and after the shooting, and immediately after Caines had run out into the garden Franks was seen to attack him with a stick, striking him on the leg, before Caines ran away. Shortly after running away Caines died as a result of his wound and was pronounced dead in a hospital at 10.10 p.m. that evening.

 

The Crown case against Franks.

3. Franks was arrested by the police on 7th July 1996. On that date the police seized the clothes that he admitted wearing on the evening of 6th July 1996. This clothing was tested for gunshot residues and the police also took swabs from his left and right hands for testing. Evidence was given that gunshot residues were found on his clothing and on the swabs from his right hand. Franks made a number of statements to the police. In one statement he said that he met Furbert in Curving Avenue and Furbert told him that Caines was in the house and asked him if he wanted to do something and he replied that he did. He then went back to his home where he obtained a stick and returned to Curving Avenue where he joined Furbert. They both went round to the back of the house where they…