Bermuda man acquitted in Canadian teen's murder

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

HAMILTON, Bermuda: A Bermuda man acquitted five years ago in the slaying of a Canadian tourist was sentenced to 10 months in jail Monday for stabbing and injuring a young woman in the British territory and then set free. 

Supreme Court Justice Mr. Charles-Etta Simmons released Mr. Justis Smith, 25, agreeing with defence arguments that he had already served that amount of jail time since his arrest in the February 2002 stabbing of Ms. Shanae Outerbridge and his subsequent conviction, Bermuda's Royal Gazette reported. 

Mr. Smith was found guilty in August of stabbing Ms. Outerbridge, 21, in the stomach during a fight in a taxi. He also was convicted of punching her cousin, Ms. Hanifah Taalibdin, and of possession of an illegal weapon. Smith had jumped into the cab with the two young women as they were leaving a nightclub. 

"Young people should be more responsible when drinking," Judge Simmons told Mr. Smith before setting him free, the Gazette said. His conviction came about five years after a Bermuda Supreme Court judge dropped a murder charge against Smith, saying there was not enough evidence to try him for the 1996 stabbing death of 17-year-old Canadian tourist Rebecca Middleton. 

Middleton of Belleville, Ont., had been tortured and raped before being stabbed and left to die of multiple wounds to the neck, chest and abdomen. 

The case remains unsolved, although a second man, Kirk Mundy, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in that case and was sentenced to five years in prison. Middleton's family has complained that their daughter's killer has not been brought to justice, leading Bermuda officials to investigate the justice system. 

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