William Martinez-McLaughlin is a free man when he walked from the Cayman Islands Grand Court Friday (30) after his second murder conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

McLaughlin was found guilty in April 2011 of murdering Brian Rankine Carter (20) in 2008 after his first trial in 2010 that also brought a guilty verdict was also overturned and a second trial ordered. McLaughlin’s appeal was overturned then on the grounds that Justice Alex Henderson had misdirected the jury.

After this second acquittal the Appeal’s Court said there would be no new trial.

“It is not appropriate and the interests of justice do not require a new trial,” Sir John Chadwick, president of the Court of Appeal said.

McLaughlin chief accuser and witness for the Crown was Jason Hinds who was with McLaughlin on the night of the killing and claimed he had seen him attack Carter with a machete. Hinds had pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.

There, however, seemed to be no conclusive evidence as to which man had actually done the killing.

Carter’s dead body was found naked in a parking lot off McField Lane in George Town on the night of Friday, 16 May 2008 with multiple chop wounds to his face, head and arms