A man was set free by a judge in the Home Circuit Court on Tuesday, two years after he along with another man were arrested and charged for a gun found in a KFC box on Dumbarton Avenue.

Oshando Hylton was freed following a no-case submission by his attorney, John Jacobs.

It was reported in June 2022 that lawmen assigned to the Half-Way-Tree Police Station were responding to an assignment in the vicinity of Dumbarton Avenue in St Andrew when they stumbled upon two men who aroused their suspicion. The men were reportedly standing beside a motorcar.

When cops approached the men and carried out a search of the vehicle, one Taurus 9mm pistol loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition was found hidden in the KFC box which was on the back seat of the car.

Jacobs told the Jamaica Observer that the no-case submission he made on his client’s behalf was successful because there was nothing substantial to link Hylton to the gun.

“Two were charged but the court withdrew the charges against one of them from early out,” Jacobs said.

“My client, Oshando Hylton was excluded by the forensic report entirely. It said that three people handled the firearm including a male and that male was not Oshando Hylton. I made the no-case submission to say that when you look at the forensic report, there were fingerprints and buccal swabs, none of which connect Mr Hylton to the gun.

“My client said he was at home when he got a call from a man who said he was at KFC and wanted my client to pick him up. When he picked him up at KFC, the man sat in the back seat. My client did not know that a gun was inside there. The man came in the car with a KFC box. If you pick up somebody at KFC, you can’t know that the person might have a gun in the KFC box or that there was any gun at all. The Crown counsel conceded to it and he was acquitted after a two-day trial,” Jacobs explained.

Jacobs submitted to the trial Judge that one of two policemen, who gave evidence in the case, was manifestly unreliable.