A 23-YEAR-OLD man gained his freedom from the Court of Appeal yesterday as a result of intensive investigation conducted by attorney-at-law Pamela Shoucair-Gayle to prove that her client was not among a group of men who shot dead two men on March 27, 1998.
One of the Crown witnesses who testified at the trial in the Home Circuit Court in May 2001 had said that Dwight Denton was among the group of men who shot and killed McKenzie Allen and Keith Myrie in a yard on Wellington Road, Kingston 11 on March 27, 1998. The witness said she and Denton attended the Whitfield Town All- Age School, Kingston 11 for five years.
Denton, Robert Drummond and Courtney Williams were each convicted in May 2001 of two counts of murder. They were each sentenced to hang. They appealed against convictions and sentence. The Court of Appeal ordered a retrial for the other two men.
A representative from the Wellington Town All-Age School produced the school register in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday and it showed that Denton had never attended that school. The school register of the Melrose Primary and Junior High School was tendered in court and it showed that Denton had attended that school and had left at age 15.
Two security officers from the Tastee Ltd. brought log sheets to the Court of Appeal. The records showed that at the time when the men were shot dead, Denton was at work at the Tastee branch in Cross Roads, Kingston.
Denton had told the police when he was arrested in March 1998 that he was at work at Tastee at the time of the incident.
After the fresh evidence was produced in court, Mrs. Shoucair-Gayle asked the court to free Denton because based on the fresh evidence he could not have committed the crime. She said it was clear that the witness who was related to one of the deceased was lying when she said she saw Denton among the group of men.
The Court of Appeal comprising Mr. Justice Donald Bingham, Mr. Justice Clarence Walker and Mr. Justice Algernon Smith upheld the submissions. The court quashed Denton's murder convictions, set aside the death sentence and entered a verdict of acquittal.
Dr. Randolph Williams who represented Drummond and Williams referred to discrepancies and inconsistencies in the Crown's case.
The court upheld the submissions, quashed the convictions, set aside the death sentences and ordered a retrial for the two men. They will be tried later this year in the Home Circuit Court.
