THE mother of Nicholas Gordon, who had been in police custody since 2019 on a murder charge, burst into tears on Monday after learning that her son was freed by a Supreme Court judge who upheld a no-case submission by his attorneys.

Defence attorneys Anthony Williams and Shadae Bailey had asked the mother to stand beside them before sharing the news.

“Your son has been freed of murder,” Williams told the mother who, up to that point, had been unaware of the verdict.

In response, the mother lunged at attorney Bailey and embraced her with a hug.

She then covered her face and burst into tears.

“Thank you. Thank God!” she said.

According to Williams, the prosecution’s case broke down after serious inconsistencies were revealed in the statements of their main witness, who is an aunt of Michael Britton, who was killed in February 2016 in Jones Town, Kingston.

“The essence of the Crown’s case was a dying declaration, which simply means that at the time when the deceased was suffering his injuries, he made certain statements. The statements he made were to the effect that it was the accused man who shot him. The witness gave two statements, and both statements significantly contradicted each other — seriously contradicted,” Williams told the Observer.

“One statement was going to the North Pole while the other was going to the South Pole,” he said.

According to Williams, in the first statement the witness claimed that while Britton was travelling with her in a taxi to Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) she tried to speak with him, but he never responded.

“We are of the opinion that the deceased succumbed to his injuries long before he went into the motor car. Obviously, he could not have said anything. He was basically dead,” said Williams.

The attorney said that in the second statement the aunt made a different claim
— that she had picked Britton up from a yard, put him in taxi, and whilst he was in the taxi, along with a sister of the aunt, he allegedly made certain statements implicating the Gordon.

“When cross-examined vigorously by the defence she said she did not tell the police those things. She denied substantial things in her statements. Both statements were contradictory. The court ruled that in light of the grave inconsistencies and discrepancies there was no way that a jury, properly directed on the law, could ever convict and so the court offered a not guilty verdict,” Williams told the Jamaica Observer.

In relation to the second statement, Williams said, “We were a bit disappointed by the fact that the Crown disclosed a very crucial statement only at the 11th hour. This statement should have been disclosed to us earlier but the long and short of it is that it was disclosed. We maintained that our client was innocent of the charges. We had very truthful witnesses who were ready, willing and able to come [to court].”