Jury frees two accused charged with murder of St Thomas taxi driver

A seven-member jury returned a unanimous verdict today acquitting 32-year-old Nekia Thompson and  24-year-old Tasheem Peart of the murder of David 'Spree' Boothe, a taxi operator of Morant Bay, St Thomas.

Boothe was fatally shot in his motor car while transporting passengers in July 2013.

The Crown led evidence in the St Thomas Circuit Court that Peart, Thompson and another woman were travelling in Boothe's taxi. When they reached a certain spot in Prospect, St Thomas, Peart allegedly shot Boothe in the back of the head.

Misty Thompson, who was charged with the other two accused, was freed at the preliminary inquiry after defence lawyer Hensley Williams argued that there was no evidence to substantiate the charge against her.

The Crown had relied on caution statements given by the two accused after they were arrested to prove its case against them at the three-week trial which began last month and was presided over by Justice Courtney Daye.

Peart had said in the statement that the two women had pointed the gun at Boothe's head but it only went “click, click” and did not fire. Peart, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said he picked up the gun, put his hand on the trigger and it went off.

A police witness noted under cross-examination that after Peart gave the caution statement he was taken to hospital.

Peart, in an unsworn statement from the dock, told the jury that he was beaten by the police and forced to give the statement. He said he was taken to hospital for the injuries he suffered during the beating.

Nekia Thompson said in her unsworn statement that it was after the police showed her Peart's caution statement that they forced her to give a statement and told her what to say.

Attorneys-at-law Horace Gray and Ricardo Gray who represented Peart and attorney-at-law Hensley Williams who represented Nekia Thompson, challenged the caution statements.

They pointed out in their submissions that the case was poorly investigated by the police, Peart was severely beaten by the police, no gun was recovered, no spent shells were found and there was no fingerprints taken from the motorcar.

Following Justice Daye's summation, the jury retired for three hours and returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.

Nekia Thompson has so far been acquitted of three murder charges within the last two years. She was charged with her boyfriend Fabian Skervin for the 2018 murder of Jamaican-Canadian couple, Melbourne and Etta Flakes, in Retreat, St Thomas but she was freed in December 2021 after attorney-at-law Hensley submitted that there was no evidence to link her to the double murder. The Crown then offered no evidence against her.

Skervin pleaded guilty to the crimes and was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 32 years before he can be eligible for parole.

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