Identification evidence bad:

"Story taken from out C O U R T section.

A VALENCIA man was yesterday freed of a murder charge after a high court judge ruled that the identification evidence given by the sole eyewitness to the murder was unreliable.

The murder charge against Shawn La Roche was dismissed when Justice Larry Lalla upheld a no-case submission by defence attorney Ricky Rahim. According to Lalla, the identification evidence of Yvonne Hosten, the common-law-wife of the deceased man was too “slender and is not reliable to mount a case against the accused.”

La Roche was before Lalla at the Port-of-Spain Third Criminal Court charged with the murder of Fitzpatrick Jones on October 19, 2002. Jones was shot as he sat outside the Valencia market with Hosten. He ran into the Valencia Police Post, where he collapsed. He later died at the Sangre Grande hospital.

In her evidence, Hosten told the court she had lived at Kangalee Street, Valencia for ten years and had seen the accused for a period of five months. According to the judge, as her evidence unfolded, it appeared as though that five-month period had been soon after she moved into Kangalee Street. He said it was reasonable to accept that a person’s facial features may change over a ten-year period, adding that a person’s memory of facial features could also change during that time.

Lalla said Hosten’s testimony gave no evidence she had seen La Roche at any time following the five months in the early part of the ten years. Prosecutor Candia James agreed with the judge that in all fairness to the accused man, an identification parade should have been held.

After recalling the 12-member panel of jurors and three alternates, Lalla informed them he had withdrawn the case from them. He told them the case had been based only on the identification evidence, adding that in such cases there was a risk that an innocent person could be wrongfully identified.

La Roche, who maintained he was innocent, later praised God and the fairness of the judge for his freedom.