A questionable identification parade conducted by the police resulted in two teenaged boys walking free of an armed robbery charge yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
It was alleged that Lorenzo Forde, 18, of Lot 4 Drysdale Street, Charlestown and Stephen McCalmont, 17, of Lot 27 D ’Urban Street, Lodge, on December 30, at Kingston, stole a 212 Toyota Carina car with licence plate number PKK 2531, valued $1,500,000, from Elijah Adams. The car was the property of Colin Stuart. Additionally, sometime before, during or after the robbery, they allegedly used violence on Adams.
Attorney-at-law Simone Morris-Ramlall, who represented McCalmont, during her no-case submission told the court that the prosecution failed to present a prima facie case against the her client. She said there was no evidence to show that McCalmont was a part of the robbery.
The attorney pointed out that although Adams had stated that four men who were dark in complexion robbed him, her client, who is fair in complexion, was picked out by in an identification parade by Adams. Adams, she said, swore that he did not lie to the police in his statement.
With regard to the height of the alleged robbers, Morris-Ramlall stated that Adams did not describe any of the men as four feet, eight inches, which is McCalmont’s height. Furthermore, she said the parade was conducted without a guardian for the two accused, both of whom were underage at the time.
Additionally, Morris-Ramlall said that Adams’ purported identification was of no value, since she contended that he was told who to pick out.
Magistrate Judy Latchman dismissed a robbery charge levelled against the duo after she considered the quality of the evidence. Latchman said her decision was not influenced by Adams’ evidence, but rather it was based on the quality of the identification parade held. She was referring to the fact that no adult relative was present when the teenagers were picked out.
Six witnesses had offered evidence during the trial, which started on January 31. Forde was also charged with the murder of Pegasus Hotel taxi-driver Rudranauth Jeeboo, whose body was dumped in Cane View Avenue last December. Shawn Edinboro was jointly charged with Forde.
It was stated that sometime between December 27, 2013 and December 28, 2013, the duo murdered Jeeboo at South Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
