DUNCANS, Trelawny — Andrae Williams has been left stunned after a combination of the triggerman’s refusal to testify and weak digital evidence led to the crumbling of the case against the man accused of putting out a hit on his mother, Andrea Lowe Garwood, as she worshipped in church.

Javan Garwood, the slain woman’s stepson, left the Trelawny Circuit Court a free man Thursday afternoon.

“I was not prepared for this. To be honest, I don’t even know what to say to you, I don’t have anything to say at the moment,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer during a telephone call after the accused walked free.

A day earlier, he had made it clear that he took little comfort in previous convictions of the getaway driver and the triggerman; he just wanted the man accused of being the mastermind behind his mother’s death punished.

“Anybody can pull a trigger, anybody can drive a car. Where is the motive? These two persons who pleaded guilty don’t know my mother. I have never seen them in my life. There is no connection to Andrea Lowe Garwood and them. So where is the motive?” Williams asked Wednesday, before breaking down in tears.

On Thursday, the prosecutor told the court that for more than two years they had tried to get Dwight Bingham, who admitted to pumping four shots into Lowe Garwood, to take the stand. They even offered him a plea deal. Bingham pleaded guilty of murder last Monday and he is to be sentenced on July 25. The driver of the getaway car, Leon Hines, was sentenced to six years in prison after he agreed to testify against Bingham and Garwood.

Khadine Coleman, who along with Lorenzo Eccleston, formed the legal team representing Garwood, said the prosecution simply had no proof against their client.

“There was no evidence that implicated my client in any accessory before the fact to murder, or murder. The Crown had to concede that point. There was nothing there,” she told reporters outside the court.

“The unfortunate thing is he has spent in excess of two years in custody which he cannot get back. It’s just gone ” she added.

During the trial, the prosecutor had conceded that digital evidence that was to come, ostensibly from two cellphones, was not enough to convict Garwood.

“While we have phone calls we don’t have details of discussions. While it is we have a few text messages they are scrambled and I gather that this was done for private and security reasons. I am told by the experts that there were deleted messages that needed the recovery process — they were scrambled,” she informed the court.

“We have to concede that the evidence we have in its totality does not meet the requisite standard,” the prosecutor added.

She also detailed the strenuous but futile efforts to get Bingham on the stand.

“We confess here: We were hopeful. We continued doing offers through counsel as late as yesterday [Wednesday]. We engaged him with offers under the plea deal. We have to accept that after more than a week if we have not gotten here yet we may not get there,” the prosecutor stated.

“The overtures didn’t start last week. They started even when the matter was put before the parish court; when other counsels were in the matter these overtures were made. We have not gotten to the place, My Lord, and I don’t believe we will be able to do that.”

She added: “My Lord, we are aware of the sensitivities associated with this case. I don’t believe we have ever seen a case — well, I certainly have not seen — where someone is executed in church at worship. So we are mindful of that, my Lord. That is why, even after Mr Bingham pleaded guilty last week, we continued,” the prosecutor added.

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, in directing the foreman of the seven-panel jury to return not guilty verdicts to the murder and conspiracy to murder charges Garwood was facing, carefully explained the reason for his instructions.

“This is one of the few instances in law where the judge actually tells you now what verdict to return. But normally, when you return the judge can’t tell you how to decide one way or the other,” he noted.

“What the Crown was hoping for, over the last two years and seven months, was that the man who did the shooting would talk. But the man who did the shooting say, ‘Boy I don’t have anything to say to anybody’. So if him say him not talking and you waiting for him now to come two years and seven months, what you going do?” said Sykes.

After the verdict was returned, the chief justice instructed Garwood he was free to go if the police had no further interest in him. Garwood then bowed politely, said, “Thank you” and was whisked outside the courtroom by a woman who appeared to be a relative.