Leonard Antonio Ebanks was yesterday jailed for life after he was convicted of the murder of Tyrone Burrell.

After the verdict, Ebanks jumped to feet and demanded to be heard in court.

He said: “Today I am going to quote the words of the Police Commissioner because today is a grave day for justice in the Cayman Islands because your honour, you are sentencing an innocent man to life in prison.

“I did not kill that young man and I did not assist anyone in the killing of that young man.”

Jailing him for life, Justice Charles Quin, said: “I am satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt Leonard Ebanks is guilty of the murder of Tyrone Ebanks. And hereby sentence [him] to life in prison.”

Tyrone, 20, died from a single gunshot in September last year outside a house on Birch Tree Hill.

At the time, murder squad detectives said the victim did have information relating to the murder of Damion Ming – who was killed the previous March in the very same yard in West Bay.

Police said that if he had come to detectives with that information, he may never have been killed.

Tyrone was dropped off at the address by his mother and was attending a party. Not long later, he was dead.

On Friday in court Judge Quin said he believed that Ebanks had confessed to the murder to the Crown’s key witness, Alene White.

Ms White was the helper at the house where the murder took place. The judge said he found her to be an honest and reliable witness. He also accepted Ebanks had motive, opportunity and possessed a gun.

Ms. White, who also said she saw the deceased that day, and said she had a premonition about the fate of Tyrone Burrell. After giving him a burger that he requested from her, she advised him to leave the premises as it was getting dark.

The court heard Ms White say that about 7pm she heard a sound and went to investigate. During the investigation Ms. White said she saw the defendant’s bicycle on the ground, right beside the living room window.

Ms. White testified that she saw the body of Tyrone Burrell lying on the ground and she went over and tapped the body three times.

She told the police that while she was tidying a room inside her employer’s home she saw Ebanks again two days later and the defendant asked her what had happened.

Ms. White said she had the feeling that the defendant was there to confess to the killing.

She then said that the defendant lifted up his shirt and showed her a gun.

She said: “I saw the gun. It was a little .38 handgun.

Ms. White said that she went to the police station on the 26th September and identified the defendant.

The judge rejected Ebanks’ alibi that he was at home at the time of the shooting bathing with his wife because the two witnesses both put him very close to the scene of the murder a few seconds before and a few seconds after.