A man who went on trial in the Home Circuit Court, for a double murder which took place when rival gangs clashed at a bus park in Spanish Town, St Catherine, has been freed.

Dwight Mathias, 26, mason, of Spanish Town, St Catherine, was freed last week after the Crown offered no further evidence against him.

The allegations were that, on March 29, 2006, Althea Grant and Craig Brown were fatally shot during a shoot-out between rival gangs in the bus park.

No eyewitness

Mathias was freed because there was no eyewitness nor scientific evidence to link him to the double murder.

It was disclosed under cross-examination by attorney-at-law Oswald James, who represented Mathias, that the methodology at the government forensic laboratory was not subjected to any international scrutiny by other scientists. After Crown Counsel Joan Barnett offered no further evidence, Justice Bryan Sykes directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.

Policemen had testified that they heard gunshots on March 29, 2006 and, while driving towards the direction of the explosions, they were fired on by a group of men.