HUGH REID, food and beverage manager, living at St. Mary Country Club, St. Mary, was yesterday taken into custody to serve his two-year prison sentence after his appeal against his conviction and sentence for possession of cocaine was dismissed.
Reid was charged with the offences after his cousin Sharon Brown, an environmental engineer of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was held at Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, in August 2000 with 4.7 lb. of cocaine (more than two kilos) strapped to her body. After she was arrested she told the police that it was Reid who had given her the cocaine to take abroad. She said she had spent a week at his house in St. Mary and it was he who took her to the airport.
Brown was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for possession of the cocaine and dealing in and attempting to export the drug.
Reid was charged with possession of cocaine and attempting to export it. Brown testified for the Crown at Reid's trial. Reid denied the allegations.
Senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown found Reid guilty of the charges, fined him a total of $400,000 and sent him to prison for two years. Reid was on $2 million bail pending the outcome of his appeal.
Attorneys-at-law Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Canute Brown argued on appeal that Reid should be freed because the prosecution had failed to establish any nexus between Reid and the cocaine produced in evidence. It was also argued that the Resident Magistrate had failed to warn himself of the dangers of convicting on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice.
The Court of Appeal comprising the Hon. Ian Forte, President, Mr. Justice Seymour Panton and Mr. Justice Neville Clarke heard the appeal, upheld the convictions and affirmed the sentence.
