A Supreme Court jury yesterday acquitted a corporate lawyer of killing a man by dangerous driving, but found him guilty of careless driving.

It took the four-man, eight-woman jury a little over an hour to find 37-year-old Appleby, Spurling and Kempe partner Shaun Morris not guilty of causing the death of Marvin Bean through dangerous driving.

The accident occurred around 2.20 a.m. on May 28, 1995 at Palmetto Road in Devonshire.

Throughout the week-long trial the Crown, led by Solicitor General Barry Meade, claimed Mr. Bean was struck on a grass verge, not on the road.

However, Morris, of Collector's Hill, Smith's Parish, maintained that he never saw Mr. Bean prior to the accident.

The jury heard that they could return three possible verdicts in the case.

They could decide that the collision was an accident since the law states that a person is not criminally responsible for an accident.

They could determine that the accident was the result of careless driving, which would render Morris at fault since he was not driving at the normal standards.

Or they could decide that the accident was the result of dangerous driving, meaning that Morris' driving fell below the standard of a competent driver.

Morris, who never testified in his own defence, was yesterday convicted of driving without due care and attention which carries a maximum penalty of $500 and/or a driving suspension of up to a year.

Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux ordered Morris, who previously had a clean driving record, to pay a $350 fine and banned him from driving all motor vehicles for two months.

Morris told the court that although he and his wife, Cynthia Thomas Morris, had endured much since the accident, it paled in comparison to what Mr. Bean's family has had to endure.

Shaun Morris