Defence to Argue Prosecution Failed to Prove Case Against Alleged ‘Vampire Killer’

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​Defence attorney Sherfield Bowen will file a no-case submission in the murder trial of Delano Forbes, arguing that the prosecution has not presented sufficient evidence to require his client to mount a defence.

A no-case submission is a legal argument made at the close of the prosecution’s case, claiming the evidence presented is so weak or flawed that no reasonable jury could convict based on it. If Justice Ann Marie-Smith upholds the submission when she rules on December 11, Forbes would be acquitted without having to present any defence evidence. If she rejects it, the trial would continue with the defence presenting its case.

Bowen’s decision to pursue this strategy comes after the prosecution closed its case yesterday following testimony from just over ten witnesses across approximately five days of proceedings spread over several weeks.

The defence is expected to argue that investigative failures and missing evidence have fatally undermined the prosecution’s case against Forbes, who is charged with the March 7, 2018 murder of post office worker Maurison Thomas at his All Saints home.

Multiple witnesses testified they were shown a wallet containing money and ID cards that was allegedly in Forbes’s possession when he was captured at a pump house. But the prosecution could not find that wallet to tender it as evidence in the trial.

In addition, crime scene photographs show ID cards lying next to Thomas’s body in blood. If the IDs were photographed at the scene, how could Forbes have taken it? And if police had the wallet in evidence as recently as March 2018, where is it now?

​Earlier in the trial, a forensic evidence officer admitted to investigative failures that Bowen described as abandoning his duty. The officer never tested the suspected murder weapon, a bloodstained metal pipe for fingerprints. He also failed to test chairs, a barrel, a refrigerator, and cushions that had been covering the body. He acknowledged never creating a crime scene diagram and couldn’t confirm whether DNA testing was conducted on any items.

The prosecution’s case relied heavily on physical evidence linking Forbes to the crime. Thomas’s daughter testified she saw someone in an army-colored hoodie fleeing her father’s home on the day of the murder. She described the person as dark-skinned, approximately five-foot-five or five-foot-six, with small plaits.

When police captured Forbes weeks later hiding in a pump house in the Folley’s area, they recovered that same army-colored hoodie. Also found were a Tommy Hilfiger wallet the daughter had given her father containing two hundred and eighty-five dollars, a belt, a black bag, two cellphones including one belonging to the deceased, red boots, and other items all identified as belonging to Thomas.

Prosecutors also presented video footage showing someone resembling Forbes in an army-colored hoodie searching through a black bag said to belong to the victim.

A pathologist testified that Thomas died from brain injuries and skull fractures caused by tremendous force from a blunt object.

Forbes, thirty-one, faces three additional murder charges in separate cases spanning 2017 and 2018. He is also charged with killing Wilfred “Bongo” Williams in Swetes, Shawn Henry in Point, and Lisue Williams on All Saints Road.