BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – A High Court judge Friday sentenced a 25-year-old man to life imprisonment for the brazen daylight murder of Damian Trotman in Sheraton Mall in 2019
In addition, Justice Carlisle Greaves, sitting in the No 3 Supreme Court, said that Hakeem Roberto Stuart must serve a minimum of 41 years behind bars before being eligible for release.
The Court had considered the four years Stuart spent on remand awaiting trial. The 35-year-old had denied murdering Trotman on March 21, 2019, but a jury found him guilty last November after deliberating for three and a half hours.
During the trial, the Court heard Stuart had admitted to police he was at Sheraton Centre on the day Trotman was fatally shot but maintained he was not the person who pulled the trigger.
Inspector Dwayne Cumberbatch said Stuart had given a written statement indicating what had transpired on March 21, 2019.
In an unsworn statement from the dock, Stuart maintained his innocence, saying he had never been convicted of any criminal offense and was not responsible for shooting Trotman.
He told the 12-member jury that he visited the famous Christ Church mall with his father on the day Trotman was killed.
Stuart said it was only while he was in police custody that he found out there had been a shooting in Sheraton Mall after several of his friends called him and told him about the incident.
and then 