Man acquitted in retrial of gun in freezer case

(CNS): A 23-year-old George Town man was acquitted by a jury following a retrial over a gun found in the freezer drawer at an apartment where he was staying with a girlfriend. Although his DNA was found on the gun and despite having previously being convicted of possession of an unlicensed firearm for the offence, Joshua Brown was released by the Grand Court last month following the verdict. Brown had been serving a 12 year sentence for the crime, as it was his second gun conviction, but the Court of Appeal overturned the original verdict handed down by visiting judge Justice Seymour Panton and ordered a retrial. The second time around Brown opted for a jury trial and was acquitted on a majority verdict.

In September 2011, following a mysterious tip off, police found the Springfield Colt .45-caliber and six rounds of ammunition wrapped in a T-shirt in the freezer at an apartment in the Prospect area where Brown was staying with one of two women he wasreportedly having a relationship with at the time.

Brown pleaded not guilty to the charges following his arrest and claimed that jealousy was the motive and suggested that the DNA on the gun was planted as he was having an affair with two women. However, in the judge alone trial in March last year Justice Panton found Brown guilty and handed down a 12 year sentence.

That verdict was then overturned in April this year by the appeal court as a result of the failure of the crown to reveal pertinent information that had led the police to where he was staying and because of how the judge had treated the DNA evidence.

In the retrial Brown’s attorney said that all the evidence against him was circumstantial as no one had seen Brown with a gun and the DNA evidence was consistent with transference rather than someone holding or loading the gun.