Anglin admits killing victim in failed appeal
Cayman Islands courts, Grand Cayman
(CNS): Nine years after he killed Carlos Webster in a West Bay Road nightclub, Devon Anglin has admitted that he was the gunman on that fatal night. In a recent application to re-open an appeal against the murder conviction, Anglin, who is serving a life sentence of 30 years for shooting Webster in the middle of the busy club, petitioned the court to re-open his appeal on new grounds. In the application he accepted that he was the killer, and argued that his conviction should be changed to manslaughter because he had been provoked and was at the time suffering from diminished responsibility due to post traumatic stress disorder.
But the appeal was dismissed on Thursday, as the court found it was “wholly without merit”.
Anglin was convicted of murder after a trial before the chief justice in 2010. He had denied the charges of murder, attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed gun, claiming he was not the shooter. Evidence came largely from two anonymous witnesses, together with CCTV footage and circumstantial evidence.
According to the witnesses, on the night of the shooting in September 2009, Anglin walked up to Webster, following various outbursts of violence between the two men and others in the club that night, and first shot him in the head before firing two more shots at his body. One of the shots passed through Webster and wounded another man in the stomach. Anglin then calmly departed the club and made his escape.
Although around 300 people were in the club at the time, the police were unable to find a single person willing to come forward and give evidence without their anonymity being protected. In the end prosecutors secured protection for the two eye witnesses and Anglin, who did not give evidence at his trial, was found guilty as charged by the judge.
During his first appeal Anglin stuck to his position that he was not the shooter. He argued through his attorneys that the identification evidence was poor, that the witnesses should not have been granted anonymity, and that because they were the evidence should not have been admitted. But that appeal failed.
During the hearing for his life sentence tariff, which happened after the implementation of the Conditional Release Law, the possibility that Anglin was accepting responsibility for the killing emerged when the lawyers argued that Anglin had been provoked and that he was also suffering from mental health problems.
While the chief justice accepted that Anglin and his girlfriend had been involved in an encounter with Webster in front of a lot people and there was degree of provocation, he did not find it amounted to such humiliation, as argued by Anglin, that it could have explained his response.
The court still considered the crime a gang-style, cold-blooded execution that amounted to retribution, not provocation. He was given the recommended 30-year term for his life tariff.
But after that hearing, Anglin applied to re-open an appeal against the conviction. Appearing without a lawyer on Thursday, the West Bay man and one-time gang leader argued that he had never been given the chance to answer a manslaughter charge based on both provocation by Webster that night and because he was suffering from PTS.
The appeal court observed that Anglin had now changed his stance after adamantly denying being the shooter throughout the trial and first appeal, now admitting he was the gunman to argue the new grounds.
Agreeing with the chief justice, the court did not accept that Anglin had been provoked. Regarding the claims about his state of mind, they noted in their ruling some conflict among the mental health experts, who found that Anglin was suffering from a personality disorder and other mental health problems but found nothing to suggest he was suffering from any kind of diminished responsibility at the time of the killing.
Reviewing the various submissions that Anglin had made to the higher court, the three judges dismissed the attempt to reopen the appeal as the grounds “did not fulfill the demanding criteria” to open a settled case.
They said there was nothing exceptional and no arguable case of injustice, but that the “applicant was merely seeking another bite of the cherry” after his original grounds of appeal had all failed.
The Court of Appeal, however, did state that Anglin could still appeal the 30-year tariff separately and advised him to seek legal counsel to assist in that case.
Enough time wasted on b.s. appeals! Do the crime, pay by serving the time!! Now that he admitted to the murder of Carli, I pray now that all of us as family, friends and neighbours can find closure in knowing for sure that the right person is in prison by his own admission. I hope that Devon can be the real “changed” man that he say he is and ask the forgiveness of his family members….btw, I wish the courts would stop accommodating these PTS or mental defect defense of known murders/gang members, who is only looking to get off ease for the crime of taking someone’s life forever!!!!!
We BEEN knew this..
I really think he should spend the next 30 years in JAMAICA. Give him the experience of real PRISON life.
Guess he thought ‘honesty’ would free him, as the pattern with others.
He waited 9 years to be honest?
Double his time.
The reality of being in there for 30 yrs finally setting in bobo!! You should have thought about that from before committing the crime!! Bracka.
Not today bobo
Good! Now I wish he would be completely truthful and admit to little Jeremiah’s murder as well….Plus anyone else whose death that he may have had a part to play in too – whether physically involved or verbally giving orders!!
idiot, you watch too much netflix. he ain’t Escobar… stop being dramatic
Idiot. Get to know the prison system here before you talk shit.
There are no gangs in the Cayman Islands.
They are wannabe gangs. These bangers are all idiots and so far are only killing other wannabes. Sorry to say. So young kids take note, keep yourself well away from these imbeciles and you’ll be just fine. Also, stop being scared of these punks and if you see something go talk to the cops. Now, I do wish the cops would set up a small task force where witnesses could feel safe and anonymous from the public while still helping.
Looks like he was ‘anglin’ for a reduction in sentence. Damn shame he failed. Ah well, never mind.
Why isn’t this guy not being sent to the UK aswell? double murder cases an he’s been giving more than one opportunity to fight his case but those two brothers were sent right away not giving a chance to prove “ Innocent until proven gulity”? (not picking sides, just viewing the two cases for an example) This is craziness. If they can send them off to the middle of nowhere we should defiantly use the same grounds/laws for other murders, worst double murders and related situations. Cayman government is so corrupted/backwards it’s a crying shame!!!!
Time to start leasing Cuban Jail space for 1/10 of the price.
Why send him to UK? SO that we will have to pay for a WHOLE FAMILY to visit the UK at the cost of the CAYMAN purse? Those two should have realised that what they done was wrong and now they are taking off the streets and put in jail and then still not behaving like they in a hotel and doing badness and then they are sent to the UK for punishment. How can this government think they be so stupid to take the WHOLE family and send them to England. The family who lost their loves one can’t see him so they should not be able to see them for the next 30 years. Shame on the Government for doing that to the Powery family and making those two feel like they did something so good. I pray they will stay over there and that the Government will have to each money send $650.00 × the amount of them that they paid to have a vacation to live over there. This is all because of they don’t think before the open their mouths.
I would guess the brothers were sent to the UK prison service to disrupt / stop ongoing threats to Prison staff and others on the Cayman Islands. Presumably this is not the case for Mr A and therefore he doesn’t need to go there?
Those brothers were guilty beyond any doubt. What are you talking about?
How come the usual hidjuts aren’t giving us the “send them back to Jamaica” stupidness. Oh, yes, because of course they have to admit that most of this nasty brutal murderous stuff is from our own Caymanian scumbags.
Your memory is short.or you have some Jamaican connection.You forget Estella.one of the most henious crime.Listen,All countries have murderers.There is no time to determine which ones have more.what we should be doing is to keep Cayman crime free,and then the world.
6:33 p.m. do you know why the C.I. Govt implemented busa requirements for Jamaica back in the 90s? let me answer for you. because Jamaicans were being brought in by canoes committing murders and going I caught by canoes after the murders. remember the Tit for Tat back in the 90s. think about it long and hard. don’t dismiss that Jamaicans also don’t commit murders. especially on our shores.
scumbags come from every country dummy … what you think donald trump is?
Hillary, is that you?
Nah, that’s Obama philosophy.
Good! Life means lock up for life! End of story….
Next
So Anglin says he should be charged with manslaughter instead of murder because he was suffering from diminished responsibility due to post traumatic stress disorder.
I take it that his PTSD was caused by him previously killing someone else?
His appeal reminds me of the guy who asked the judge to be lenient on him for killing his parents, on the grounds that he was now an orphan.
Rot in the cell, time to move on.
How much more taxpayer money will be wasted on “further bites of the cherry”, by this admitted liar and murderer?. There must have been dozens of witnesses and only two would give evidence?, what does this say about the type of people who attend these nightclubs.
It says.. people who know what type of lifestyle others or living out here so they rather keep their life than save a dead one. Right? How can you save a dead one?
8.12pm you got it absolutely wrong, if no one gives evidence he would still be out there adding to his trophies.
Who is going to assure your anonymity and protection when your done giving your evidence? Do you trust the police with your life?
Walk and live talk and ……you know the rest.
Can we please ship all of our hardened long-term storage problems off-island to a supermax far away? We shouldn’t house these psycho murderers and gang assassins in the same common areas as our misdemeanor prisoner population – already over capacity.
Wait… Where do you want to send him. Your product, your problem!!
Texas
Time for a high security prison. Shame it couldn’t include hanging.
Sadly this is probably a case of throw away the keys…no more appeals, enough time, money and most importantly lives wasted.