A man who once stood on trial for manslaughter in Toronto's notorious Just Desserts shooting case has been murdered in Jamaica.

O'Neil Grant, who was eventually acquitted of all charges related to the death of Georgina (Vivi) Leimonis, was shot several times Monday night in west Kingston. The 35-year-old died in hospital.

Jamaican police told The Globe and Mail the murder may have been in retaliation for shooting someone locally.

"He was approached by a lone gunman on foot who opened fire, hitting him," said Leslie Green, Jamaica's assistant commissioner of police for serious and organized crime.

Grant made headlines in Toronto in April, 1994 when he was charged with robbery and manslaughter for an incident that took place at the Just Desserts caf� on Davenport Road.

Leimonis was having coffee with a friend when three armed men came into the caf� and ordered them to the back of the restaurant. The robbers began taking their valuables when the 23-year-old hairdresser was shot in the chest.

She died on the operating table at St. Michael's hospital.

Grant spent more than five years in jail awaiting trial but a jury acquitted him of all charges.

Two men, Lawrence Brown and Gary Francis, were convicted in connection to the shooting and robbery and are currently in jail serving time.

Though Grant was acquitted and had not been convicted of a crime since 1992, he was deported to his Jamaican homeland in 2002 for violating a condition of a stay of a previous deportation order.

Grant had been in Canada since he was 11 years old.

One of Grant's lawyers, Heather McArthur, said he should have never been deported in the first place.

"He was an innocent man. He didn't do it but he stayed in jail for over five years," she told the Globe and Mail. "Despite that, they sent him down to a country where he knew nobody, he had no money.

"They just put him on a plane and now he's dead," she continued.

McArthur said she is still in touch with Grant's common-law wife and three children, all of whom still live in Canada.

"They're devastated," she said.