Murder case collapses on cops' credibility
Published:Wednesday | July 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Inconsistent statements by policemen who were witnesses for the Crown, as to how five men were arrested and charged for the murder of 20-year-old Kemar Morrison, have caused the prosecution's case to crumble.
Freed were Fabian Benjamin, Horatio Royal, Cornelius Lawes and Marlon Brown. The fifth accused, Barrington Burton, was on bail when he was shot and killed the day before the trial ended.
The policemen had testified in the Home Circuit Court at the trial, which began on July 4, that on March 13, 2006 they were walking in Gregory Park, St Catherine. They heard several gunshots coming from the direction of the train line. Shortly after, they saw six armed men coming from the direction where the shots were fired.
They shouted "police!", and the men fired at the them. They returned the fire and the men escaped into nearby premises.
One of the policemen said he recognised some of the men, but he went on an identification parade and did not point out anyone. Another policeman said he knew some of the men and pointed out two of them, including one of the accused men in court, at an identification parade.
Defence lawyers Lloyd McFarlane, Valerie Neita Robertson, Tom Tavares-Finson, Gladstone Wilson and Courtney Foster got permission from the court to send for the station diary and the crime book from the Caymanas Police Station where reports were made by the policemen. Entries in the books indicated that the police party had gone to the area because of information received about a murder there. The entries stated that when the police arrived, citizens pointed them in the direction where the men had gone.
The entries disclosed that the police party went in the direction where the men had gone and were fired on by a group of three men who they named.
Policemen in denial
When cross-examined, the policemen denied giving any such information to the woman inspector who made the entries.
Arising from the outcome, Lisa Palmer Hamilton, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, called the inspector, who was not named as a witness on the back of the indictment.
Under cross-examination, the inspector said she made the entries based on the information that the policemen gave her.
Palmer-Hamilton said the credibility of the witnesses had been so eroded that the proper course was to offer no further evidence.
In response, Senior Puisne Judge Gloria Smith said "eroded" was putting it lightly and directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.