THE murder trial of dancehall artiste Munga Honorable, and his co-accused Sheridan “Mad Rhymes” Gordon collapsed dramatically in the Gun Court Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston on Friday when the Crown seemingly agreed with defence attorneys who had argued that the main prosecution witness was unreliable.

There appeared to be too many inconsistencies in the evidence from the sole eyewitness who claimed that she saw Munga Honorable — whose given name is Damian Rhoden — and Gordon pump bullets into the body of Cleveland Campbell, killing him in Ackee Walk, St Andrew, in 2017.

These inconsistencies led to the prosecution team offering no further evidence against the two.

Rhoden and Gordon were subsequently set free after facing nine years of adversity in relation to the matter, which was stalled on numerous occasions because of the unavailability of witnesses.

Attorneys Christopher Townsend and Chadwick Berry represented Rhoden while King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie and Sayeed Bernard represented Gordon.

Champagnie told the Jamaica Observer that his client was relieved after he was told that he was free to go.

“Mr Champagnie, I can finally continue my life, and I am eternally grateful to you and Mr Bernard. Thank you very much,” Gordon is said to have told his attorneys.

Townsend said Rhoden told him that he felt “free” after the court’s decision was handed down.

“I am glad to announce that we were successful in the defence of Munga and Mad Rhymes. It has been nine long years but Mr Champagnie and myself were able to cross-examine the only witness for the Crown to the point where the credibility fell down significantly and the prosecution threw in the towel because of the evidence in the state it was in. We were able to demonstrate that the evidence concerning identification was extremely poor,” Townsend said.

Meanwhile, Champagnie told the Observer that when he cross-examined the witness on Thursday, her account of the incident did not add up.

“Under cross-examination yesterday (Thursday), for instance, she indicated that she had not said in court that she stood behind two barrels and saw the men in the passage, but when she was confronted with it by me, in terms of the official court records, she said she was tricked into giving that evidence and that she didn’t understand and was tricked.

“She also admitted in cross-examination that certain portions of her statement to the police were untrue,” said Champagnie.

The witness had claimed in her statement to the police that she was attending a party in Ackee Walk and found herself wanting to urinate after drinking a few Heinekens. She claimed that it was when she went to urinate she witnessed the fatal shooting.

Munga Honorable.

During cross-examination from Townsend and Champagnie, the witness could not tell the court definitively how many Heinekens she had drunk. In court she said she had only one before going off to urinate.

“I went back to the Heineken story on Thursday and confronted her about that. She admitted that in her statement she said that she drank a lot of Heinekens and that she was at a table drinking Heinekens. She also admitted to me that even though she was there with some friends, and very good friends, she had not told them anything about what she had seen and she gave her statement [to the police] 14 days after the incident,” said Champagine.

During cross-examination by Townsend last week, there were many differences between the witness’s statement and what she testified in court.

The witness claimed last week in court that while she was in the process of relieving herself, she saw a man ride past on a bicycle.

She claimed that she saw Gordon accost the man, grabbing him in the back of the neck. She further alleged that shortly after, she saw Rhoden walk up to the man with a black thing in his hand, which she later identified as a firearm.

“I wasn’t sure what it was at the time but then I saw him lift the thing he had in his hand and hit the person in his head. After that I saw a light flash and then I heard an explosion in the passage where they were. The explosion sounded to me like gunshot and then I saw a next light and heard another explosion,” the witness claimed.

She alleged that when the man who had been riding the bicycle fell to the ground, Rhoden passed the firearm to Gordon, who pumped bullets into Campbell’s body as well.

The witness claimed that she was in such panic that she did not know what to do. “I froze at that moment. I was in total shock,” she told the court.

The witness claimed that she was able to see the incident because there was a street light on Molynes Road that “reflected back into the passage”.

“I saw the back part of Munga. His back part was towards me. I already knew the clothing he was in and I already knew how he looked. He was in a black shirt, black pants and black hat,” the witness said, claiming that she saw the right side of Gordon, who was dressed in a blue merino and a light blue jeans pants, from where she was positioned.

“I saw the right side of his head, his right hand and right foot. I saw his ears go down to his right foot. After they left, I heard a lady shout out, telling people to go and look. At that point I pulled up my clothes and ran,” she said, claiming that she jumped into her car and headed straight home.

“I was in such shock, I stayed in my house,” she said, telling the court that a week later she ran into a relative of Gordon who was in “great mourning” and told him something.

“Sometime after some detectives came and I gave a statement,” said the witness.