A judge last week adjourned the cases against eight men who were facing serious charges including murder and shooting in the Gun Court Section of the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate's Court, after being repeatedly told by the prosecution that the matters, some of which dated back as far as 2004, could not proceed due to the absence of witnesses and/or incomplete files.

The first matter presented to the magistrate, Glen Brown, last Wednesday was that of two men, Sean Hutchinson and Ricardo Walker, both of corporate area addresses, who had been in custody since 2004 on a murder charge, and who had been brought to court on numerous occasions but were never tried due to the lack of a post-mortem report to complete the case file.

Attorney at law for both men, Elham Bogle, in making a submission to Brown to have the matter dismissed, told the court that the eyewitnesses to the murder could not be found.
"The eyewitnesses were evading the police and not coming forward," she told the Observer.

After being informed that the men had been behind bars for four years without trial, Brown quickly obliged Bogle's request and had the matter adjourned sine die (without a date).

However, immediately after addressing Bogle's matter, Brown was presented with a similar submission by attorney- at-law Peter Champagnie on behalf of his two clients Sheldon Boyd and Marlon Young, both of Kingston 2 addresses. Both men, Champagnie told the court, had been on a murder charge since 2005 but had yet to face trial for their matter due to the unavailability of witnesses.

"The case never got off the ground due to the unavailability of the witnesses. The eyewitness never once came to court," Champagnie told the Observer subsequently.

Boyd, Champagnie went on to say, was taken into custody in 2005 in relation to the matter and had since been in custody for three and a half years without bail. Young had been serving a prison sentence for another matter when he was charged for murder along with Boyd.

On hearing these details, and also hearing from the prosecution that the witnesses were "making themselves unavailable for the case", Brown stated that he had no choice but to adjourn the matter. He then launched into a harsh criticism of the manner in which the police were executing their duties in the two matters.

"When you have no witnesses coming forward, when you have police admitting to fabricating statements and you have people in custody for so long people can start to think it is deliberate. I am not saying it is deliberate but it appears deliberate," Brown said.

Brown also stated that he refused to accept excuses for the late production of post mortem reports, medical certificates, forensic certificates and other such documents by police officers to complete case files.

"I maintain that after the Bob Woolmer issue, that is how I expect the system of justice to operate. Once you show me you can do it [fast] one time, then it can be done everytime," he said.

As other cases were mentioned Brown went on to adjourn the matters of four more men. Among these were a man who had been in custody on a murder charge since 2006, but faced no trial due to the lack of a post-mortem report to complete the file. The case against another man who was on bail for a 2004 murder, and who had yet to be tried due to the absence of witnesses was also dropped.

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