A jury has found one man guilty and acquitted two others in the 2020 murder of senior Customs officer Nigel Christian, delivering a split verdict that closes a case that gripped the nation for more than five years.
Saleim Harrigan was convicted unanimously of Christian's murder, according to Antigua.news. His co-defendants, Wayne Thomas of Hatton and Lasean Bully of Cashew Hill, were acquitted and walked free from court. All three had faced charges in connection with the killing.
The jury — five women and four men — spent several hours deliberating before returning their verdicts. At around 6pm, after four hours behind closed doors, they informed the court they required more time. The final verdicts were returned after 7pm and were unanimous on all three accused.
Earlier in the day, Justice Rajiv Persaud spent more than four hours guiding the jury through the evidence before sending them out to deliberate.
The trial, which opened on February 19th and ran for more than two months, drew on weeks of testimony, DNA evidence, FBI cellular mapping, and sharply contested claims regarding planted evidence and police integrity.
At the centre of the case was the afternoon of July 10th, 2020, when Christian was seized at gunpoint from his McKinnons home in broad daylight. His body was discovered hours later on a dirt road in Thibou's. The killing of a man widely known and respected within the Customs Department sent shockwaves across the country and set in motion a prosecution that took the better part of half a decade to reach its conclusion.
Harrigan will now face sentencing. For both his family and the family of Nigel Christian, the verdicts bring an end to a long and painful wait for resolution.
