Appeal Court Clears Man After Flawed Eyewitness ID in August Town Killing

A man who had been locked up on a life term for murder has walked free from three serious convictions after Jamaica’s Court of Appeal found that prosecutors built their case on identification proof too weak to stand.

In a judgment released recently, the appellate bench wiped out Reid’s guilty verdicts for murder, illegal possession of a firearm, and wounding with intent linked to a deadly shooting in August Town on October 26, 2018. The court substituted full acquittals on each count.

Justices Korna Shelly-Williams, Frank Williams, and Vivene Harris held that the trial judge did not properly test the prosecution’s lone eyewitness identification before dismissing the defence’s no-case submission, leaving the convictions unsafe.

“We have concluded that, given the tenuous nature of the identification evidence, the no-case submission should have been upheld,” the panel wrote.

The judges said that once the trial judge decided the matter should go to the jury, he never fully worked through the identification material, including clear gaps in the witness’s account.

They added: “The appellant was denied the protection meant to prevent wrongful convictions based on unreliable identification.”

Reid challenged his conviction and sentences in December 2021 and was granted leave to appeal. Hearings opened in 2023, and in April 2025 his lawyer sought permission to introduce fresh evidence tied to claims that the eyewitness was coerced into giving false testimony. That bid was heard and rejected in December of last year, after which the court still moved to overturn the convictions.

Reid had been found guilty in the Circuit Court Division of the Gun Court in December 2021. He received 20 years for illegal possession of a firearm, life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 20 years for murder, and 30 years at hard labour for wounding with intent, all to run together.

Prosecutors leaned almost wholly on the wounded eyewitness, who was shot during the attack that killed Carlye Grant and left him permanently paralysed.

Evidence showed the eyewitness and companions were on Barrett Street in August Town when a vehicle pulled up nearby. He told the court he saw Reid step out with a silver handgun, a handkerchief masking the lower half of his face. He said he stood still for roughly 15 to 20 seconds as the gunman aimed at Grant and fired several rounds.

Grant was later discovered dead with multiple gunshot wounds at 41 August Town Road. Irving was also struck in the shooting.

Though the eyewitness said he knew Reid for more than 12 years and recognised him, the Court of Appeal identified major problems with the identification.

The judges recorded that the trial judge properly reminded himself, under R v Turnbull, that even truthful witnesses can err in identification. Yet they said he never spelled out why he still accepted Irving’s account when most of the attacker’s face was hidden.

The court asked how the witness could fix on details such as an “oval face” with the lower face covered. It also flagged mismatches over the gunman’s hairstyle and height, noting the style described did not match police photographs of Reid.

Judges further stressed that Irving had only seconds to observe the shooter under extreme stress.

Reid’s defence attacked the identification and said he was babysitting at his brother’s home when the shooting happened. Family members backed that alibi and testified that traits Irving relied on, including eye shape and complexion, were common among several male relatives.

The Crown countered that Irving had known Reid for more than a decade and could still identify him despite the face covering, arguing the evidence was enough to sustain the verdicts.

The Court of Appeal also reviewed an affidavit in which Irving later tried to withdraw his identification, saying gang members had threatened him into falsely naming Reid. While the court dismissed that statement as “incapable of belief”, it said the episode still highlighted how fragile the prosecution’s case was given its near-total dependence on Irving.

Concluding that the trial judge had not adequately weighed the identification proof, the appellate court ruled the no-case submission ought to have succeeded. It quashed the convictions, set aside the sentences, and entered acquittals on all charges.

Melrose Reid appeared for the appellant. Lenster Lewis-Meade and Luke Cook represented the Crown.