Hodge Jones & Allen

14th June 2011

 

A HJA client has been cleared of all charges in relation to the death of teenager Stephen Lewis.

 

Background to the case

 

In January 2009, the victim attended a party, which our client Nyimbi and the two other defendants were also attending.  At some point during the evening a fight broke out and the victim was stabbed twice in the upper torso.  One of the wounds proved to be fatal.  

 

At 3am that morning, our client’s father called the police to the family home, reporting a disturbance.  It was clear that members of the victim’s "gang" mistakenly believed that our client was in some way responsible for his murder and were now causing trouble outside the house.

 

Evidence from witnesses

 

The main evidence in relation to our client potentially came from two witnesses.

 

One independent eye witness recalled a swell of youths dressed in black fighting, but could not make out any precise details – only that when the fight was over, the victim was lying immobile on the floor.  The testimony of this witness later proved crucial in relation to the identification evidence. 

 

Another witness, who was the best friend of the victim, said that he had seen the main defendant Chris Mazekelua and our client stab the victim together.  Mazekelua had a history of bad blood with the victim. 

 

When the case was taken to court, the jury convicted Mazekelua of murder and our client of manslaughter.  However, by the time the case came to trial, the witness who claimed he had actually seen our client and the other defendant stab the victim had now become a “hostile witness” – meaning that he had become reluctant to testify. 

 

Court of Appeal

 

HJA took the case to the Court of Appeal, arguing firstly that the conviction was unsafe (perverse verdict), and secondly, that the 8 year sentence our client had been given was excessive.

 

We argued that the court erred in its approach to the hostile witness and that the so-called supporting evidence (i.e the identification evidence) could not be relied upon, given that this witness has claimed that all men who had been involved in the fight had been wearing black, whereas that evening our client had been wearing white. 

 

On hearing submissions, the conviction was quashed and our client walked away from the court cleared of all charges in relation to the victim’s death. 

 

Nyimbi’s solicitor Pamela Reddy, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen LLP commented:  “We are so pleased that our client has been saved from eight years imprisonment for a crime he did not commit.  It was just a shame that the case had to go to the Court of Appeal to get the right verdict”.