Preliminary inquiry finds prima facie evidence against accused killer of Ronald Rivers, 28
Case committed to October session of Supreme Court
Ronald Rivers, 28, a popular basketball player who worked as a tour guide, was ambushed on March 4, 2013, while he was checking his vehicle, which had developed mechanical problems, at the Uno gas station on Youth for the Future Drive.
Rivers was shot once with a .38 firearm, and several weeks later, while undergoing treatment, he succumbed to his injury at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).
The man accused of pulling the trigger, Lloyd Alexander King, 19, was arrested shortly after the shooting by police who were patrolling the area when the shooting occurred. King was initially charged with attempted murder and possession of unlicensed firearm and ammunition, use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm.
But his charges were later upgraded to murder when Rivers died after three weeks in the hospital.
King appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer today, where, at the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry, it was determined that there is prima facie evidence for him to stand trial for Rivers’ murder in the Supreme Court.
Frazer committed King’s case to the October session of the Supreme Court.
At the preliminary inquiry, King, who was unrepresented, did not challenge any of the prosecution’s evidence against him.
Frazer asked King if he had any witness that he would like to call to testify on his behalf, but King replied that he had none. The Senior Magistrate, however, gave him up to June 10 to provide the court with an alibi witness.
Inspector Hector Rodriguez, the prosecutor in the preliminary inquiry, tendered 12 witness statements.
Also included in Rodriguez’s bundle of evidence against King was a report from Dr. Mario Estradabran, who performed the autopsy on Rivers’ body.
A warrant in the first instance for King’s arrest; a firearm document; a sudden death report; Rivers’ death certificate; 3 sets of photographs taken of Rivers at the KHMH morgue; plus an additional 9 sets of photographs from the crime scene and pictures of the chrome .38.firearm and a .38 expended shell were all included in the prosecution’s preliminary inquiry evidence in the case against King.