THE MAN who was accused of the murder of Senior Super-intendent Lloyd McDonald was freed Tuesday after Justice Kay Beckford upheld a no case submission.
He is Ian Scott, 26, steel worker of Grants Pen, St. Andrew, who had been in custody since March 2004.
The judge directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty after hearing submissions from defence lawyers Carolyn Reid and Peter Champagnie.
The lawyers referred to discrepancies in the Crown's case and stressed that the identification evidence was very weak.
The 46-year-old SSP McDonald, an ex-bodyguard of former Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, was shot dead at the intersection of Devon and Waterloo roads, St. Andrew, about 10 p.m. on February 20, 2004. He was driving a marked police car at the time he was shot. SSP McDonald's firearm was stolen.
POLICE WITNESS
A policewoman testified at the in camera trial that, while she was travelling along Hope Road, St. Andrew, on the day of the incident, she saw two men travelling on a motorcycle.
She said a marked police car was in front of the motorcycle, but she did not see who was driving it. She said about an hour later she heard that a policeman was fatally shot.
Another woman said she was on Waterloo Road when she saw two men on a motorcycle. She said the pillion rider came off the motorcycle and shot the policeman who was in a police car.
The two women said they did not know Scott before that night. The policewoman pointed out Scott at an identification parade a few weeks later as the man she had seen on the back of the motorcycle on Hope Road.
The other woman went to an identification parade on March 16, 2004, but she did not point out anyone. She said in the Home Circuit Court last week that 'fear' prevented her from pointing Scott out at the identification parade.
