A Grand Court jury on Monday delivered a unanimous guilty verdict against George Orlando Senior for the 2023 murder of Divonte Hernandez.
After four days of deliberations, the jury of five men and seven women convicted Senior, 36, of killing 25-year-old Hernandez in front of his young daughter and others in a daring daytime shooting at a car park off Sound Way in George Town on the morning of 29 Sept. 2023.
Co-accused Bianca Vega, 34, who was tried on a charge of accessory after the fact to murder, because she had hidden Senior following the shooting, was found not guilty by the jury – also unanimously.
Following the verdicts, which the jury delivered shortly after 2:30pm, Vega sobbed in the dock. Senior, sitting next to her, did not show any outward reaction to the verdicts.
‘Happy relief’ for family
Members of the Hernandez family have been in court throughout the three-and-a-half-week-long trial, during which jurors heard evidence and testimonies from police and forensic experts, as well as from both Senior and Vega.
Sister Mikayla Hernandez, speaking with the Cayman Compass outside court on Monday afternoon following the verdicts, said the overarching emotion among the family was “happy relief” that justice had been delivered for her brother.
“It can’t bring him back,” she added. “He’s not here, living his life. But I’m happy for me and my mom and his daughter that justice has been done.”
She said hearing the evidence about her brother’s killing had been hard. “Some days, I just couldn’t stay,” she added.
The family said Divonte Hernandez’s mother was at his graveside Friday while they awaited the verdict, and she was the first person Mikayla phoned as soon as the jurors were dismissed.
Gunned down in broad daylight
Hernandez died after being shot in the chest as he sat at a table in a car park near the intersection of Shedden Road and Eastern Avenue.
Senior had denied he was the shooter, insisting he was the reluctant getaway driver who had been coerced into driving two armed men, whom he said were called ‘Skippa’ and ‘Cheese’.
Senior claimed he had met the two men while he was doing a drug deal earlier that day, and that his supplier had convinced him to drive the pair so they could collect debts from various people.
He had told the jury that it was Skippa who shot and killed Hernandez, after getting out of the passenger seat of the rented Honda Fit Senior was driving, and walking the short distance to the table at which Hernandez was sitting.
Vega had told the jury, during her testimony, that she did not believe Senior, the father of her child, had committed the murder.
Justice Cheryll Richards had instructed the jury that they could only convict Vega of being an accessory if they believed that she was certain that Senior was the murderer.
Richards remanded Senior in custody and ordered him to appear before the court again for a sentencing hearing on 27 June.
