Police woman Michelle Brown 27, is acquitted of Murder of 37-year old Fareed Ahmad
by: Anita Nembhard- Flowers
Belize City, Fri. Dec. 18, 2020
After a 26 days of trial, and over 20 witnesses called to the stand by the crown, today at 11:00, Justice Colin Williams after 2 hours of deliberation handing down a decision, told Brown to stand up, and then said to her, – “Ahmad is dead. He died from blunt force trauma and underlining force as a consequence of gunshots injury, as at the time injury inflicted, while there was intent to commit grievous harm, intent to kill was not there., Someone shot Ahmad. – The Crown did not satisfy me that it was you, – not guilty.”
His decision came after Justice Williams laid out all the evidence the crown had brought before him, and testimony from over 20 more witnesses that took the stand, and a visit to the locus on Thursday, December 10.
Justice Colin Williams at 9:15 repeated the evidence of the case for the crown, that early on the morning of December 28, 2017, at around 12:29 a.m, Ahmad’s BMW- SUV collided into a flat bed truck at Mile 16.
The first of two people extracted by members of the community was Ahmad who was removed from his extensively damaged front door and because of this, Brown had to be removed from the drivers side.
Ahmad had a gunshot injury and was bleeding from the head. He asked for water and was told to lie down and not to walk. Both Brown and Ahmad still alive were rushed to the KHMH in an ambulance, and Ahmad later died from his injuries.
Doctor Lloyd Ken, the pathologist said Ahmad had two gunshot injuries that entered from the right and exit the left with a wound to the forehead.
Doctor Ken concluded that Ahmad’s fractured skull injury happened on impact, and led to the collection of blood with soft tissue similar to a bruise and once the brain started to swell, the pressure caused other parts of the body to shut down and it was at this time, that he was at a very critical point which led to Ahmad’s death which was caused by acute vascular injury as as result of blunt force trauma to head due to motor vehicle Collison as a consequence of gunshot wound to the face.
On December 29, 2017, Brown was arrested and charged with Ahmad’s murder.
According to Justice Williams, the crown used pieces of evidence from here and there to piece together her case.
Brown was represented by Simeon Sampson and Anthony Sylvester was of the view that the evidence of the crown is not proof enough for Brown to be found guilty.
But before he could determine Browns guilt, Justice Williams also looked at elements of murder that crown must prove; being, that one- Ahmad’s is dead, and this he said was proven, 2- his death was caused by harm, which was proven, 3- it was brown who inflicted those harm, – 4- at the time the harm was inflicted Brown did so with specific intent to kill- this too, he said was not proven by the crown against Brown- 5-that when Brown did so, the act was unlawful, this too was not proven against Brown by the crown during the trial, noted Justice Williams as he spoke of the crown’s case.
Justice Williams also looked at inconsistency in the case.
While he noted that there were inconsistencies, it was necessary to evaluate testimonies of witnesses and how their evidence connect and compare with other evidence.
In doing so, Justice Williams highlighted some inconsistencies like in the testimonies of Corporal Abner Itsa and PC Oscar Itch.
These are two police officers who worked along with Brown on the SAT , Special Assignment Team the night of Ahmad’s shooting turn murder which the crown relied on for circumstantial evidences to link Brown to being Ahmad’s shooter.
The inconsistency of what transpired at the Racoon Street Police Station where CPL. Itsa said he remain in the mobile when Brown exited quickly and by the time he got into the building Brown had left and was nowhere to be found and she took the issue 9mm., gun she had signed out for, that by protocols was to be sign in back said Cpl. Itsa While the collaborating officer Itch said Cpl. Itsa did not remain in the vehicle he walked inside behind the team.
In Justice William’s view, some inconsistency can be relatively mended.
Other inconsistencies came where witnesses for the crown, specifically police witness who testified of Browns behavior on the night of the crash and one witness claiming Brown was crying, another said she was asked what was wrong but she denied having any problems.
And the biggest inconsistency of the crown case as it related the Cpl. Itsa was his testimony where he gave the wrong brand name of the gun, as the firearm issued to Brown on the night of the murder. The officer testified in court it was a 9mm pistol Beretta brand with serial number. . . .
But in cross examination by the defense he later admitted he thought he had said Bersa as he meant to say Beretta. It was not until the recording of the trial was replayed in court for the officer, that he admitted that it was an error on his part.
The gun in question was later found inside the panel of Ahmad’s BMW a day later by the Fire Service Department Supervisor tasked to dismantle the vehicle after the crash.
The question of who truly had possession of that gun which the crown circumstantial evidence pointed to Brown as the holder was not proven in the either since the Cpl Supervisor who claim she signed out for it by writing on a log sheet, a log sheet he fail to attach to his report hence the crown had no evidence to show in court linking Brown to signing for the gun and in her defense, Brown did mot admit or deny having any gun assigned to her on the night of Ahmad’s shooting.
Justice Williams also highligted why he rejected some and portions of the crown witnesses statements exmaple that of Scenes of Crime Techician, Sheradine Peters who testify that Ahmads BMW had arrived at the Police Station on December 29, 2017 Where she process it after the gun was found. But her date was wrong and the date of her evidence had to have been December 28, 2017, so he rejected her testimony as being incompetent since the Fire service Personnel had testified to dismantling the BMW on December 27, 2017 where a gun was found in the panel of the front passenger side of the vehicle.
Justice Williams also told Brown in court as he looked back at all sides, that, “There is some portion of Brown’s case that are not reliable. I did not believe she was heading to Belmopan when she got into Fareed’s vehicle and he did not believe it was a mere coincident she ended up in his vehicle.
He also did not believe Brown’s version of events when she told the court that a Youngman just came into the vehicle. And he sure did not believe that a 3rd person came into the vehicle by shear coincidence.
He was of the view that if there was a 3rd person in the vehicle, the person must have been there before the vehicle move off or they went to pick up the person – but he as the judge is not there to speculate, – Justice Williams said.
Judge Williams also highlighted the fact that a number of crucial evidence spoken about by crown witnesses about exhibits that was taken to the National Forensic Science service which never made it into court and went missing from the exhibits.
He also highlighted the evidence of blood samples, fragments taken from the gun, swabbing of the nozzle of the gun taken in for testing and Nothing else was heard of those evidence during the trial.
The Judge believes that conclusive evidence could have been provided to say whether the deceased blood was found on it, – but nothing else was said about them in court.
About half way in the judge’s decision, he noted to the court, “Even if Brown told a lie or many lies, it is not evidence of guilt but lie or lies was to boost her defense, but because she testified on oath her testimony had to be given the same weight as that of the crown’s witnesses who testified against her.
Brown who gave sworn testimony on oath said she did not shot Fareed Ahmad and pointed the blame on Cpl. Elmer Nah 2ho she claim got into the vehicle after Ahmad made a U-turn on the road heading back to Belize city and when the vehicle came to a sudden stop for a few seconds, a man whose voice she recognized placed a gun to her head and told her not to move so she did not.
The man then cocked the gun, turn it on Ahmad and shot him then jumped out of the vehicle. Seconds later when Ahmad released his hands off the steering wheels, they crashed.
Brown denied all 3 allegations made by crown against her.
But as the judge said, she had nothing to prove, it was the crown’s job to prove the guilt of the accused.
Brown had been on remand from December 29, 2017 the day she was released from hospital and charged with Ahmad’s murder, which is exactly 2 years and 11 months.
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