Stan Reiz KC represents defendant acquitted of murder and manslaughter in the Cayman Islands

Stan Reiz KC, instructed by and leading Katie Williams of Samson Law, represented a defendant (DW) acquitted of murder and manslaughter of AP in a tragic and unusual case before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

AP was 2 years and 9 months old when she disappeared from her bedroom in the early hours of the 26th July 2022. She was found dead 0.7 miles away on the iron shore of Cayman Brac. Her cause of death was originally deemed to be drowning, but after AP’s mother obtained a further post-mortem report, the case was re-classified as a homicide with the cause of death said to have been compression of the neck.

The prosecution case was that the killer must have been one of the three adult occupants of the apartment as the door had been double locked and there were no signs of forced entry. AP’s mother found DW (her boyfriend) outside the apartment at 5am when she discovered AP was missing.

The prosecution alleged that DW had killed AP and deposited her body before returning to the apartment. They presented a circumstantial case relying on evidence from AP’s mother, eyewitnesses who observed DW’s behaviour and a Ring doorbell which had been pulled from a neighbouring property and thrown into the sea. No footage was recovered, but its removal, it was argued, suggested the person responsible knew the complex well.

DW denied involvement in AP’s disappearance and death. The defence case was that he could not have committed the murder, deposited the body where it was found and returned during the short period he was out of the mother’s sight. The defence highlighted evidence suggestive of third party involvement, in particular, a suspicious vehicle seen travelling away from the area where AP’s body was found. DW did not give evidence in his own defence.

Following a 4 week trial, the jury found DW not guilty of murder and manslaughter. He was found guilty of an alternative charge of abduction (suggesting that the jury concluded that DW removed AP from the apartment for someone else without intending any harm to come to her, but that the other person thereafter killed her).

Stan Reiz KC was temporarily admitted to the Cayman Bar as an attorney to allow him to represent DW at trial.