Cop gets off murder rap, victim's mom discredited
Published:Friday | December 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Police ConstablE Ramone McLean gained his freedom yesterday after Senior Puisne Judge Gloria Smith exercised her powers and called a technical witness who contradicted the testimony of the Crown's star witness.
The judge's intervention resulted in defence lawyers Valerie Neita Robertson and Peter Champagnie making a no-case submission, at the end of the Crown's case, that the prosecution did not prove its case against McLean.
McLean was charged with the murder of 31-year-old Clovetta Wynter.
Wynter was shot at the couple's home in Greater Portmore, St Catherine, on February 22 last year. There was no eyewitness to the shooting.
After the incident, McLean told several persons that he and Wynter had a dispute. Wynter tried to take away his firearm and it accidentally went off and shot her.
The Crown had alleged at the trial, which began last week in the Home Circuit Court, that the policeman shot Wynter without justification and the killing was premeditated. The mother of the deceased testified that, on the day of the incident, Wynter had telephoned her and said that McLean had a gun at her neck and was going to kill her. She said she heard McLean saying he was not going to allow Wynter to leave.
Calls traced
During the course of the trial it was discovered that investigations were conducted to trace the call between the telephone of the deceased and her mother.
The defence lawyers insisted that the prosecution should call the telephone technicians from Digicel but the prosecution refused.
The judge then intervened and called the telephone expert who confirmed that no calls were made between the two cellular phones on the day of the incident.
After the Crown closed its case, the defence lawyers submitted that the main witness on whom the Crown was relying was discredited. The lawyers argued that the Crown could not prove that the shooting was not accidental.
The judge upheld the no-case submission and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.