Kingston man freed of 2007 murder

Kingston labourer 31-year-old Dwight Leslie, who had been in custody for more than nine years awaiting trial, was today freed of murder in the Home Circuit Court.

He was freed after his attorney Peter Champagnie QC argued that the case against him was weak.

Leslie was on trial for the murder of 21-year-old Anthony Barnes who was killed on June 1, 2007.

When the matter started on Monday, he elected to have his case tried by a judge alone.

Prosecutors led evidence that about 10:30 on the night in question Leslie along with others shot and killed Barnes.

According to the prosecutors, the killing was witnessed by Barnes' father who subsequently died but whose written statement was relied upon in the trial against Leslie.

At the end of the prosecution's case, Champagnie submitted that the quality of the identification evidence was poor.

It emerged during the trial in cross-examination of the scene of crime witness that the area was dark and therefore the witness' ability to see who killed his son was poor.

Photographs taken of the scene supported this.

Champagnie's submission was upheld by the presiding judge Justice Leighton Pusey, who freed Leslie.

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