Stepson freed in Trelawny church murder case

Javan Garwood was freed in the Trelawny Circuit Court this morning where he was being tried for the murder of his stepmother Andrea Lowe-Garwood in a church in January 2021.

He was charged with murder and conspiracy to murder.

The Crown told the court that two years and seven months of trying to get Dwight Bingham, who pleaded guilty to the murder, to talk had failed.

The Crown also said that digital evidence was scrambled and it had no way of proving that Javan was guilty.

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes instructed the foreman of the jury to return a not guilty verdict.

Lowe-Garwood was shot and killed on January 31, 2021 while worshipping at the Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Trelawny, allegedly by a man who sat in the pew behind her. The gunman subsequently escaped in a waiting motor car.

Bingham pleaded guilty on July 3 to the charges of murder and illegal possession of a firearm. He is to be sentenced on July 25.

Leon Hines, the getaway driver pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to six years in prison on March 25, 2021.

-Leon Jackson

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