Wildey man not guilty of gun charges

St Michael man Seth Ashad Michael Straker walked out of the High Court today free of gun and ammunition charges.

The Rock Close, Wildey resident was found not guilty of having an illegal Beretta A 303 semi automatic shotgun and three rounds of ammunition in his possession on May 29, 2007.

After hearing evidence back in March, the nine-member jury returned today for Justice Randall Worrell’s summation of the case before deliberating. The matter had been adjourned and delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the over two-hour long summation, the jurors took about 40 minutes to return the verdict in the case in which Starker represented himself and Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett was the prosecutor.

Giving an unsworn statement in the No. 2 Supreme Court in March, Straker disclosed that he went home to get a condom after having a conversation with a woman but when he returned to the place where he had left her, he came across some men who told him to leave. He fled.

Straker said he ran through a track along with another man. When he arrived at the end of that trail he came across a man on a bicycle aiming a gun at him but the man running alongside him ran at the gunman knocking him down.

“I ran and took the gun from the man. I ran into the shop and when I look outside I saw ten to 20 men outside.”

He explained that he told the woman who was in the shop to call the police and she led him into the back.

“Before the police got there I put the gun in the cupboard  . . . and I just emptied my pockets. The police got there . . . the guys outside which I took the gun from said the gun in there. The police went to the cupboard and found the gun. I told the police what happened . . . they still decided to charge me anyway. I did five months on remand,” he said as he explained why he had the illegal weapon.

“The fella was on the bike trying to aim the gun at me. The [other] guy he jump over and landed on the bicycle, the guy could not aim the gun anymore . . . so I said when that guy does get up he will hit me first so I took the gun as I run and told Sherryann to call the police. That’s why I took the gun,” Straker said.