People inside and outside Courtroom Number 1 at the Supreme Court, downtown Kingston, exploded in celebration yesterday after a 12-member jury found Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, corporals Shane Lyons and Patrick Coke not guilty of murder, bringing the highly-charged Crawle Trial to a dramatic end.

“Criminals, unnu better pack up and run away ’cause the don come,” shouted a woman wearing a multi-coloured dress outside the courthouse.

“Gunman haffi run away now ’cause Adams come back a road,” shouted another person from among the crowd.

In stark contrast to the earlier weeks of the trial, very few armed police and soldiers were on the courthouse premises yesterday.

Anxiety hung heavy in the air during the just over five-hour wait for the verdict. Admas’ attorney, K Churchill Neita, paced the corridors smoking; some prosecution lawyers milled about outside the court, while others remained in the courtroom.

Police dressed in civilian clothes, who came to support the accused trio, congregated at the back of the courtroom, maintaining a cold, and at times hostile, disposition towards members of the media.

People gathered in small groups outside the court sharing their opinions on the trial which began with six cops charged with murder in the May 2003 shooting deaths of four persons in Crawle, Clarendon.

Last week Monday, Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe freed three of the accused – constables Devon Bernard and Roderick Collier and Corporal Lenford Gordon – saying that the prosecution failed to make a credible case against them.

The chief justice however ruled that Adams, Lyons and Coke had a case to answer.

Yesterday, when the verdict was read, members of the JCF, who almost filled the courtroom, uttered soft cheers of triumph.

As the freed cops left the prisoners’ dock they were mobbed by persons in the courtroom who hugged and patted them on their backs.

Contacted by telephone, Carolyn Gomes, executive director of rights group Jamaicans For Justice, expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict.

“I am deeply disappointed by the verdict,” she told the Observer. “At what point will the country decide that we have had enough collateral damage in the form of dead bodies. at what point will they realise that the rule of law is what we want, and that we have had enough of the killing of citizens by policemen?” she asked.

Yvonne McCalla Sobers of Families Against State Terrorism, who was in the court yesterday, said she had no complaints about the manner in which the trial was carried out.

“I believe that we had a rigorous trial,” she said. “I thought the defence did a good job and the prosecution did a good job. I feel gratified that the jury was out for five-and-a-half hours. It shows they had something to deliberate about and that the system works.”

Outside the courthouse, supporters of the freed policemen lined the rear entrance chanting “Freedom” and “Good over evil” as they waited for the cops to appear. As soon as Adams was spotted, the crowd rushed towards him, some trying feverishly to touch him.

“Jamaican people love him (Adams), me love him gone to bed,” said a middle-aged man who gave his name as Clive Douglas. “Dem man deh nuh work from the road alone, dem work from gullybank to gullybank. Adams’ crime-fighting team is the best.”

Shortly after speaking with the Observer Douglas, who was holding a bottle of wine, ran up to Adams and began pouring some of the wine on the ground around Adams. Immediately afterwards, someone presented Adams with a floral arrangement.

Making his way through the crowd to a waiting car, Adams issued a warning to criminals who he said came into the island from overseas after he was arrested and boasted that they had returned to control the streets. “I am imploring them, beseeching them to return from whence they came because so as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end,” he said.

– davisv@jamaicaobserver.com