OLYMPIC Gardens resident Kevin Sutherland was acquitted of a charge of murder in the Home Circuit Court on Monday.

Sutherland was freed after Justice Bertram Morrison ordered a panel of 12 jurors to return a formal verdict of not guilty, following a no-case submission by attorney Nadine C Atkinson-Flowers.

The no-case submission came at the end of the prosecution’s case.

Sutherland is alleged to have shot dead Marlon ‘Butler’ Brooks in Olympic Gardens on March 23, 2009. He was apprehended that same year.

The sole eyewitness, in giving evidence in the case, said he had known Sutherland for years and that the accused had a scar on the right side of his neck, under the right ear and on his jaw.

When the witness was asked to point out the scar, there was none on the accused man’s neck or face. The witness also said that he had identified Sutherland from about 130 feet away.

In upholding the no-case submission, Morrison said that the identification evidence was very fragile. He said that the law says that where the basis of an identification is so slender, the case should be withdrawn from the jury.