TWO accused murderers were freed in the Home Circuit Court yesterday after the prosecution’s main witness said he was beaten by the police into signing the statements implicating both men in the shooting death of his cousin.
As a result of the revelation, the prosecution had to offer no further evidence against the men — Christopher Braham and Kirk Dyce — prompting Justice Ingrid Mangatal to instruct jurors to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
Mangatal also ordered that the Bureau of Special Investigations conduct a probe into the allegations made by the witness, a newspaper vendor, who also told the court that he is unable to read.
According to the statements, the witness identified the accused men, whom he knew previously, and said that he saw them shooting to death Oniel Mullings on the morning of January 31, 2005 in the old capital of Spanish Town in St Catherine.
But the witness threw the trial in a tailspin at the start of his examination-in-chief.
The witness denied being on the scene of the incident and denied knowing the men.
The witness was later seen talking and laughing with a man and a woman who had accompanied the accused men to court.
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