KINGSTON, Jamaica — Convicted murderer Marlon Brown has been ordered by the Court of Appeal to serve his life sentence for the shooting death of a security supervisor seven years ago at the Caymanas Track in Portmore, St Catherine.

The outcome of Brown’s appeal is in contrast to that of his co-accused Karega Barnes, who the court acquitted in earlier this year.

Brown and Barnes were convicted in the Home Circuit Court on April 16, 2010 for the murder of Edward Green and sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Both men petitioned the appellate court in April of this year and Barnes conviction and sentence was set aside, and verdict of acquittal entered.

The court, at that time, reserved judgement on Brown’s case until last week Friday when it issued its ruling, which was also contained the reasons for the April ruling in Barnes’ favour.

The court noted that the prosecution’s identification evidence against Barnes was “unsatisfactory”.

Also going in Barnes’ favour was his unchallenged evidence that he could not have been at the Caymanas track at 5:30 when the incident is said to have taken place on July 26, 2005 because the Bog Walk Gorge was blocked on his way from the Linstead Police Station where he went to make his daily report as part of his bail condition from another matter.

In relation to Brown, the court threw out all seven of his grounds for appeal.

Regarding his complaint that the minimum time of 25 years was excessive, the court noted: “As at the date of sentencing, the statutory minimum stipulation for murder was 15 years... and we cannot in any event say that a stipulation of 25 years was manifestly excessive in the light of the evidence, which by their verdict, the jury accepted that Mr Brown and another were responsible for the brutal slaying of the deceased.”

Green, a supervisor of McKay Security Consultants Ltd, was shot while on duty at Caymanas Track and his firearm stolen. A witness testified to seeing Brown running from the area with two guns in his hands in the company of other men.

Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserver

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver