One of two men convicted of the murder of former president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, 62-year-old Lloyd G. Brown, and his 49-year-old fiancée, Sandra Campbell, has been freed.

The Court of Appeal on Wed-nesday freed Donald Whyte, 41-year-old labourer, of Love Lane, Kingston. He was sentenced in November 2007 to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he must serve 40 years' imprisonment before parole.

Attorney-at-law Ian Wilkinson, who represented Whyte, argued that his client should have been freed on the no-case submission which was made at his trial because there was no evidence to link him to the murder.

Wilkinson said inadmissible evidence was used to convict Whyte. He argued that a prosecution witness had claimed that Peter Dougal, a co-accused, said he and a man called 'Shortman' had committed the offence. However, the indirect evidence of a co-accused against another was inadmissible, the defence lawyer said. Wilkinson said Whyte had denied that he was called 'Shortman'.

Weak evidence

Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, QC, conceded that the evidence against Whyte was weak.

Dougal, a 40-year-old construction worker and farmer, of Santoy district, Hanover, was sentenced to hang. He is appealing, and a five-member panel - instead of the usual three-member body - will hear his appeal on December 7 as he is challenging the death penalty.

Brown and Campbell were shot dead at Campbell's Stillwell Road residence in Stony Hill, St Andrew, about 4 a.m. on June 6, 2004. The police had theorised that it was a contract killing.

Evidence was given that within hours of the double murder, the police went to Vineyard Town where Dougal and a group of men engaged them in a shoot-out. During the incident, Dougal was shot and the murder weapon taken from him. He was found in possession of Brown's photograph.

Dougal's lawyer, Dr Randolph Williams, had asked the judge not to impose the death penalty because that would cheapen life.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com