Appeal court frees man convicted for gun offence
March 12, 2010
The Court of Appeal has freed 25-year-old Denhue Harvey, apprentice welder of Red Hills Road, St Andrew, who was sentenced in July 2008 to 12 years' imprisonment for gun offences.
Defence lawyer Everton Bird argued that Harvey's conviction should be overturned because the judge erred on the facts and applied the wrong principle of law in arriving at the verdict.
Harvey was convicted in the Gun Court on charges of illegal possession of firearm, shooting with intent, and assault.
Bird submitted in the Court of Appeal that the credibility of the two purported eyewitnesses was destroyed during evidence in chief and under cross-examination.
He referred to sections of the evidence in which the complainant said in a statement to the police that when she was at the gate with her mother she felt something against her ear and heard a clicking sound. When she turned around, she saw the accused, whom she knew as Eddie. He had a gun in his hand and pointed it at her. She thought she was going to die so she ran off on to Red Hills Road, and when she reached the entrance of Red Hills Lane she looked back and saw Eddie and her mother wrestling....
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
