Clad in a white outfit with an orange bandana protecting his face, dancehall star Vybz Kartel walked out of the Tower Road Grownup Correctional Centre in Kingston immediately as a free man.
The 48-year-old entertainer was freed by the Courtroom of Enchantment earlier after spending 13 years in custody.
Outdoors the jail, Vybz Kartel was greeted by adoring followers, his fiancée Sidem Öztürk, and Tommy Thompson, the CEO of Brite Lite Funeral House.
“Keep out of crime, it nuh value it. A waste of time and waste of life,” have been his first phrases earlier than departing in a white limousine.
Simply hours earlier, President of the Courtroom Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop delivered the judgment within the retrial of Vybz Kartel and his three co-accused, ruling in opposition to a brand new trial and acquitting them of the 2011 homicide of Clive “Lizard” Williams.
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The court docket’s resolution was unanimous. Justice McDonald-Bishop led the panel, which included Justices Paulette Williams and David Fraser.
The judges cited a number of causes for his or her resolution, together with the prosecution’s inadequate account of its witnesses’ availability, the prolonged delay for a brand new trial (estimated at 15 years), the violation of the appellants’ proper to a good listening to within the first trial, potential prejudices in opposition to the appellants, and the complicated nature of the trial, together with its size, price, and different court docket sources.
Justice McDonald-Bishop famous that the 13 years already spent in custody by the appellants additionally influenced their resolution.
Kartel, together with Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell and Andre St John, walked free immediately. Nevertheless, the fourth man charged, Kahira Jones, will stay in custody as he’s serving a sentence in an unrelated case.
Learn: Court of Appeal orders the release of Vybz Kartel and co-accused
