the body, was found not guilty of attempted murder, in the Supreme Court yesterday.

However the jury of 10 women and two men did find him guilty of the remaining four charges -- unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, unlawful wounding, using a firearm, and possession of a prohibited weapon.

They took just over three hours to reach their verdict.

All 12 jurors found Richardson guilty of unlawful wounding, using a firearm and possessing a prohibited weapon while at least nine of them found him not guilty to attempted murder and guilty to unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Although Richardson, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith's Parish, showed no expression when the verdict was read, his lawyer Mr. Mark Pettingill was irate and told The Royal Gazette : "We will be appealing this conviction. This is really causing me to loose faith in the jury system.'' During the two-week trial the court learned that there had been an ongoing rift between Richardson and Simmons, and on the night on October 29 last year the two met up at the Spinning Wheel night club.

Simmons told the court that he became angry after seeing Richardson pointing a gun at him from across the bar and threw an ashtray at him. When he approached Richardson to confront him he was shot four times.

However, Richardson denied shooting Simmons and said the only gun he was carrying that night was a plastic cap gun.

Richardson added that while at the bar Simmons started making hostile gestures towards him and then an object came flying over the bar at him hitting one of the chandeliers. And after realising that Simmons was coming towards him to fight "I came up with a novel idea that if I pulled the toy gun out it would scare them.'' Richardson will be sentenced on October 11.

Charles Richardson