May 28, 2008 — There was nothing "suggestive" about a police photo array shown to witnesses after the October 2007 shooting death of Carlos Aguilar, a V.I. Superior Court Judge said Wednesday after defense attorneys attempted to suppress the witnesses' identifications of Aguilar's alleged killer.
The shooting happened in broad daylight in front of numerous motorists, many of them tourists. Aguilar's car collided with another vehicle on Smith Bay Road near Sapphire Beach as Aguilar pursued a vehicle whose occupants he suspected were involved in burglarizing his Smith Bay home. Following the collision, gunfire erupted, and Aguilar was shot once from a distance and a second time at close range, according to witness statements. Aguilar died 10 days later.
A plea of not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, weapons and possession of stolen property has already been entered by 19-year-old Akeel Codrington, held without bail since he was arrested in the murder late last year. During a hearing held Wednesday in V.I. Superior Court, Codrington's defense attorney, Julie Todman, argued that witnesses who identified Codrington as the shooter after looking at a police photo array gave "broad" descriptions of the suspect without nailing down specific details such as his face structure or other facial features.
Most of the witness descriptions speak to Codrington's height, approximate age and complexion, she added.
"Many had no facial descriptions or descriptions of various other features — if they had, we could determine whether those statements could be compared with their earlier descriptions," Todman said. "But there were none, which we believe is suspect."
Another witness, a taxi driver taking a group of visitors on a tour of the area at the time of the shooting, was shown a black-and-white copy of the original photo array, which also did not clearly show Codrington's physical features, she said.
The picture of Codrington included in the photo array was taken the day after the shooting, when Codrington gave his statement to the police, Todman said. Other witnesses were present at the police station that day and could have recognized his face in the photo array, prompting them to identify Codrington as the shooter, she argued.
Many issues raised by the defense should be put before a jury during trial, said Superior Court Judge James S. Carroll III, who described the photo array as "fair."
"All of the individuals here have braids, facial hair, more or less oval-shaped faces," Carroll said as he denied the defense's motion to suppress the identifications and photo array. "Where is the suggestiveness? There's really nothing here that makes one person stand out more than the others. All the witnesses saw the car crash, all had the same opportunity to observe the shooter — it seems the other questions you've raised, which could undermine the accuracy of the identifications, are things that should be raised during trial."
When discussing the "reliability" of the witness statements — many of which, Todman argued, were taken in detail months after the shooting occurred — government attorneys argued that there was little room for doubt in the case. Especially since many of the witnesses saw Codrington emerge — with a silver revolver in hand — from the driver's side of a red-two door vehicle after he crashed into Aguilar.
Witnesses also said they saw Codrington fire "one round" into Aguilar's car, turn, walk a few feet away, then turn around again and fire a second round into the vehicle at close range.
"In terms of whether these witnesses had the opportunity to view the act — they had the best seats in the house," argued Assistant Attorney General Brenda Scales, representing the government. "Their attention had to be riveted. And their descriptions all match — there's no suggestibility here that I see."
Carroll also denied Codrington's request to change his attorney.
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