R v Johnson

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Court: Court of Appeal (Jamaica)
• Judge: Carey, P.
• Judgment Date: 22 March 1993
• Neutral Citation: JM 1993 CA 23
• Docket Number: No. 7 of 1992
• Date: 22 March 1993

Court of Appeal

Carey, P. (Ag.); Downer, J.A.; Gordon, J.A

No. 7 of 1992

R.

and

Johnson

Appearances:

Paul Ashley for appellant

Lloyd Hibbert, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions for crown

Criminal law - Appeal against conviction — Possession of firearm — Possession and robbery with aggravation — Appeal against conviction quashed and sentence set aside — Burden of proof on the prosecution not satisfied.

1 Carey, P. (Ag.): The following are the reasons for our decision on 7th December 1992 when we treated the hearing of the application for leave to appeal as the hearing of the appeal which we allowed, quashing the conviction and setting aside the sentence. We also directed that a verdict and judgment of acquittal be entered.

2 The appellant was convicted in the High Court Division of the Gun Court in Clarendon before Wolfe, J. (sitting alone) of the offences of illegal possession of a firearm and robbery with aggravation. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of five years and six years imprisonment at hard labour.

3 The facts which gave rise to these charges are as follows: On the 10th April 1989 at about 2:00 p.m. the victim, Gregory Brown a farmer, while standing on the road at Palmers Cross in Clarendon was accosted by a young man who in hailing him referred to him in some vulgar team. At the same time, another young man suddenly appeared, to enquire about Brown's ability to hear, to which, Brown made him to understand that the term used was not his name. Then a third man, who was armed with a firearm came up. He issued the command to one of the others later identified as the appellant, “work” which was understood to mean that the appellant should search Brown. Eventually the victim was pulled off the road into a less public place where he was again searched and robbed of some $600.00. He was then pushed out from where he had been forced and...