R v Gordon et Al

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Court: Court of Appeal (Jamaica)
• Judge: Rowe, P.
• Judgment Date: 18 January 1989
• Neutral Citation: JM 1989 CA 15
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal No. 196 of 1987
• Date: 18 January 1989

Court of Appeal

Rowe, P.; Wright, J.A.; Downer, J.A.

Criminal Appeal No. 196 of 1987

R

and

Gordon et al

Appearances:

No appearances on behalf of applicants.

Miss Vinnette Grant for the Crown.

Criminal law - Demanding money with intent to extort — Conviction — Application for leave to appeal — Jury's verdict not to be impugned — Application refused.

Rowe, P.

1 The applicant Dalton Crawford is charged on an indictment containing three counts, along with two other men Eric Gordon and Winston Andrade, in relation to a series of events which spanned the period 17th February, 1986 to 6th of March, 1986. Crawford himself was only charged in relation to the third of the incidents which took place on the 6th of March, 1986. All three counts charged demanding money with menaces with the intention to steal. Crawford was convicted before Reckord, J., and a Jury in the Home Circuit Court on the 22nd of October, 1987 and he was sentenced to serve a term of 3 years Imprisonment at hard labour. His application for leave to appeal although refused by the single Judge has come before us and we have to consider the grounds of appeal filed by him, which are to the effect that Mr. Raby Williams did not give evidence on oath and was therefore not a person whose evidence ought to be believed, and further that the dealings which he had with Mr. Raby Williams, who was the main witness for the Crown, had to do only with an offer by him to put Mr. Williams in a good position to win at the races, he (the applicant) being in possession of some inside knowledge of what was likely to transpire in the forthcoming race meeting. He denied, in his grounds, that he was a party to the demand of money by menaces.

2 The Crown's case is that between the 17th of February, 1986 and the 6th of March of the same year, a scheme was hatched, with a man called Reeves at the very centre and the scheme was to seek to obtain money from Mr. Raby Williams, Jnr., by menaces. Reeves was well known to Mr. Williams and had benefited in the past from Mr. Williams' generosity. The allegation was that Reeves and another man Gordon, first approached Mr. Williams and told him that Reeves had shot a man and Reeves wished to leave the Island and so they needed money to permit Reeves to stowaway.

3 The man Gordon said he had contacts and was able to carry through the scheme. Whereupon, the evidence is, Mr. Williams gave a cheque for six hundred dollars ($600.00)...