This morning at around 9:00 a.m., Jamil Betancourt, who is presently on remand for a double murder that occurred on January 22 of this year, was freed of the charge of the attempted murder of Eric Savery when the prosecutor, Cheryl Lynn Branker-Taitt, entered a nolle prosequi.
In 2005, Betancourt was accused of shooting Savery, and was charged with attempted murder. He was additionally charged with damage to property for causing damage to a vehicle belonging to Keith Nunez, for which he was indicted earlier in this session of the Supreme Court.
But today, his trial never got started, because the prosecution’s two main witnesses, the victim, Savery, and the other witness to the crime, Nunez, who are both on remand for robbery, both told the prosecutor they would not testify against Betancourt. The prosecutor had no choice but to enter a nolle prosequi.
According to Branker-Taitt, when she spoke with Savery two weeks ago, he was afraid to testify and told her that he has two children and has to think of their protection, hence, he could not testify against Betancourt.
Betancourt is on remand for the murders of two young city youths. The case has already been submitted to the Supreme Court for trial. Police say that Betancourt was the man who pulled the trigger at around 10:00 p.m., on that deadly Monday night that killed Elroy Flowers, 18, and Adrian Espinoza, 23, and injured Michael Goff, 27, who were inside Flowers’ home playing a video game.
A lone gunman entered and opened fire. Flowers was shot in his head and left arm. Espinoza was shot in his head and back and Goff was shot in his left chest, left ear, right wrist, and left arm. Flowers and Espinoza died shortly after while Goff survived.
In the last session of the Supreme Court, Betancourt also walked free from another attempted murder charge, in which the main witness, Alpheus Smith, had been killed some two weeks prior to the start of the trial.
The prosecutor, Doug Carr, had indicated to the court that he had to enter a nolle prosequi because the main witness was dead and he was unable to locate other witnesses.