Grazettes v The Queen
| Jurisdiction | Barbados |
| Judge | Williams, J.A. |
| Judgment Date | 18 September 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | BB 2008 CA 9 |
| Docket Number | Criminal Appeal No. 15 of 2006 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Barbados) |
| Date | 18 September 2008 |
Court of Appeal
Williams, J.A.; Connell, J.A.; Moore, J.A.
Criminal Appeal No. 15 of 2006
Mr. Arthur Holder and Mr. Dennis Headley for the appellant.
Mr. Alliston Seale for the respondent.
Evidence - Admissibility of DNA evidence — Whether chain of custody of the DNA samples was adequately identified — Nothing in the evidence suggested a sample switch — Evidence rightly admitted.
On 19 May 2001, Rosanna Marlene Griffith left her home accompanied by her sisters to go to the supermarket. She never returned; she was sexually assaulted and murdered. DNA evidence linked the appellant, Clyde Anderson Grazette to the crime. On 21 November 2006, a jury convicted the appellant of the murder and Cornelius, J. imposed the mandatory death sentence. The Court is required to determine whether the verdict of the jury should be set aside on the ground that under all the circumstances it is unsafe or unsatisfactory.
Rosanna Griffith was 18 years old and lived at Nurse Land, St Stephen's Hill, Black Rock, St. Michael with her mother, Juliette Griffith, her grandmother, Daphne Griffith, her aunt, Jennifer Griffith and her younger sisters, Crystal Griffith and Cindy Dates. She was a student at St. Lucy Secondary School before entering the Barbados Youth Service, where she spent two years prior to the completion of her training in February 2001.
On Saturday 19 May 2001 around 9.00 p.m. Rosanna left home with her two sisters and a friend, Rhea King, to go to Carlton Supermarket. At the time, Crystal and Rhea were 13 and Cindy was 9 years old. The girls bought a few items in the supermarket. Rosanna paid for them and held them in a supermarket bag. When they reached the exit door of the supermarket, Rhea complained of feeling hungry. Rosanna remained standing at the door while Crystal, Cindy and Rhea re-entered the supermarket and purchased yogurt and ice cream for themselves. When the three returned to the spot where they had left Rosanna, they did not see her. And, when they reached home she was not there.
Juliette Griffith did not recall the time that the children returned home but after they had, she went searching for Rosanna. Daphne Griffith also went down St. Stephen's Hill and all through Clevedale looking for her granddaughter. The children also went back out to search for Rosanna. There is no evidence however that Rosanna's disappearance had at that time been reported to the police.
On the morning of Sunday 20 May, Rosanna's mother had to go to work and while she was at work, she telephoned her mother at home and became aware of Rosanna's death. Carlos Archer, a school friend of Rosanna, on his way home from playing football about 10.15 a.m. saw her body lying down in the track next to his house in St. Stephen's Hill.
The prosecution's case against the appellant was based primarily on DNA evidence, which we set out in detail below. However, before doing so, it is helpful to relate the other evidence linking the appellant to the scene of the murder for it is in this context that the DNA evidence has to be assessed.
Police Constable Dalton Thorne gave evidence of seeing the appellant on 19 May sometime after 9.00 p.m. on the compound of Carlton Supermarket. The appellant was dressed in a black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt. PC Thorne was not on duty and he did not speak to the appellant.
Cheryl Waterman, who lived at Black Rock said that she was in a house on St. Stephen's Hill when she saw Rosanna on 19 May around 7.30 p.m. “walking up the street with a [Carlton Supermarket] bag in her hand”. She later said, “it could be about 8.00, 8.30 anywhere around there I am not sure of the time” (Emphasis added). She did not remember anything else happening after that except “hearing a dog barking or a sound like a dog barking”. The following day she saw Rosanna's body at St. Stephen's Hill “lying through a rocky road”.
Japeth Williams, who lived at St. Stephen's Hill, said that he was at home on 19 May around 9.45 p.m. He “heard a voice, a ‘fainty’ voice, like a female…that screamed…I heard [the female person] scream and that scream did not take for long, about, just four seconds”. Later in his evidence he said that he went for a searchlight and he also put on his apartment's patio light. Although the place “was a bit dark and it was bushy”, he saw a man standing, but he could not make out the person's face. All that he could remember was that the person was wearing “a black T-shirt with a white streak at the two sides”. The person was also wearing a hat, but he did not take note of its colour. He then went back into his apartment. He also heard some dogs barking “both from Clevedale side and from St. Stephen's Hill side”. He was not cross-examined.
On 31 May 2001, eleven days after Rosanna's body was discovered, the appellant gave PC David Rouse, a written ten page movement statement. It was a Form B Witness Statement taken to obtain information at a time when the appellant was not a suspect or an accused person under caution. The statement was read to the court by PC Rouse. There was no objection taken to this procedure. Nevertheless, the statement was very similar to the appellant's unsworn statement made from the dock at his trial and set out in part at paragraph [42] below. We make a précis of the written statement highlighting the evidence that the appellant gave of his movements on 19 May.
The appellant gave his age as 37 years, his occupation as carpenter and his address as St. Stephen's Hill, where his mother lived. He stated that his relationship with his girlfriend, Pamela Collymore, had ended on 2 May 2001 when he was evicted from her home at Brandons. Thereafter he was sleeping on the street, on the premises of Carlton Club, in abandoned houses and with friends as he was not on good terms with his mother and did not go to her house in St. Stephen's Hill. On Saturday 19 May for most of the day he was in Temple Yard, where he drank “several bottles of Guinness and some brandy”. Sometime after 5.00 p.m. he took a bath at a friend's residence and changed into “a full length black jeans, a pair of black and white soft wears and a black, green and white Fabu shirt”. He caught a van to St. Stephen's Hill and alighted from the van near to Carlton Supermarket. He went to the phone booth and called Pamela but no one answered. He said at page 252 (page references are to the record of appeal): “By this time outside was dark, but I cannot say what time it was.”
He then went up St. Stephen's Hill where he spent time with some men that he knew. It was there that he saw Rosanna walking past with the other girls; he said at page 253:
“Whilst I was there speaking with ‘Sweetboy’, a young girl, who I know as living in the St. Stephen's area walked past with three little children walking with her. I know this young lady by seeing her walking through the district, but I do not know her name. I usually would pull at her or make numerous remarks as she passed. As she passed, I reached out at her, but I did not touch her. She walked across the road in front of Hinkson's shop and disappeared from my view.”
The appellant remained in St. Stephen's Hill before changing a silver dollar into four quarters to enable him to speak for an extended period on a pay phone. He then returned to the phone booth by the supermarket and made a second call to Pamela, again without hearing her. He sat on a bench for a while before making a third call to Pamela but there was no answer. He then went back to the bottom of St. Stephen's Hill and into the St. Stephen's Church yard before going back to the phone booth to make his fourth unsuccessful call to Pamela. He went into the supermarket and purchased a large passion fruit juice. As he walked out of the supermarket he saw his sister, Shelly, standing by the door with some grocery bags and assisted her with the bags to the bottom of St. Stephen's Hill near the track leading to his mother's house. He then continued up the hill. He said at page 252: “As I was walking up the hill, I saw a woman who is one of a twin. She is either the girl who I had teased earlier mother or aunt. I said good night to her and I continued walking.”
He eventually caught a van to Bridgetown and another to Roach Village, but he could not give an account of the time that he was in Roach Village. He said at page 256: “I cannot speak about exact times because I did not have a watch.”
He then got a lift back to the supermarket and eventually slept in an abandoned house. He said also at page 256:
“The next day, I caught a van to Temple Yard and I remained there throughout the day and during the evening. I saw ‘Iroy’ in Temple Yard and he told me that Black Rock was hot because a young girl had been murdered. He described who the person was and I realised it was the same young girl that I usually interfere with.”
The evidence of the appellant's movements and those of Rosanna on the night of 19 May in relation to the offence is as follows. The appellant arrived at Carlton Supermarket between 8.00 and 8.15 p.m. He later went up St. Stephen's Hill. Around 9.00 p.m. Rosanna and the other girls passed the appellant on St. Stephen's Hill on their way to the supermarket. The appellant thereafter went back to the supermarket where he was seen by PC Thorne sometime after 9.00 p.m. Rosanna left the supermarket sometime after 9.00 p.m. and was seen by Cheryl Waterman (the witness who last saw Rosanna alive) going up St. Stephen's Hill with a Carlton Supermarket bag. The appellant also returned to St. Stephen's Hill. It was around 9.45 p.m. that Japeth Williams heard at St. Stephen's Hill “a voice like a female that screamed”. According to him,...
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