Court of Appeal Orders Bail for Man Charged in 2019 Killing
Jamaica's Court of Appeal has ordered bail for Kevonne Reid, who faces murder and gun charges, ruling that a Supreme Court judge wrongly relied on unproven claims of witness tampering when she denied his release.
Court of Appeal Orders Bail for Man Charged in 2019 Killing
Jamaica's second-highest court has ordered that Kevonne Reid be released on bail while awaiting trial for murder, finding that a Supreme Court judge acted with "substantive unfairness" when she kept him in custody based on rumours rather than proof.
Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop, who heads the Court of Appeal, issued a detailed written ruling on Monday explaining why her bench overturned Justice Vinette Graham-Allen's December 2025 refusal to let Reid out on bail. The appellate court had announced its decision in February after hearing arguments, but the full reasons were published only now.
Reid stands accused of shooting a woman to death in November 2019 while her young children were present. Prosecutors say a child witness saw a man nicknamed "Teardrops" pull the trigger and later picked Reid out of a police lineup in July 2020. Reid also faces a charge of having a firearm illegally.
He first won bail in November 2020 from a parish court, with rules requiring him to check in with police, obey a curfew, and surrender his travel documents. Over the next three years he reportedly followed every condition without fail, and his reporting was even reduced from five times a week to three.
That changed in July 2023, when his bail was cancelled because he had been charged in a separate Gun Court case. But those charges were later thrown out entirely.
After that acquittal, Reid asked to be let back out on bail. The prosecution fought the request, claiming he had used WhatsApp to "strategically contact" a witness and disrupt communication. Justice Graham-Allen sided with the prosecution and denied bail, also citing concerns that Reid might flee, partly because police had arrested him in August 2020 while he was on a motorcycle.
The Court of Appeal found major problems with that reasoning. Justice McDonald-Bishop noted that prosecutors never produced a statement from the investigating officer, never showed any WhatsApp messages, and never even said when the alleged contact happened, what was said, or what phone number was used.
"The weight attached to bare, unsubstantiated hearsay... was, with respect, misplaced," she wrote in her 40-page judgment. She added that a judge hearing a bail request must do more than simply hear an accusation — the court must look at how strong the evidence for that accusation really is.
The appellate judge also criticised Graham-Allen for focusing heavily on the 2020 motorcycle arrest while largely ignoring Reid's clean record on bail for nearly three years. She said the lower court never considered whether tighter bail rules could address any remaining concerns without keeping Reid in jail.
In her ruling, McDonald-Bishop laid out twelve principles for how Jamaican courts should treat hearsay evidence during bail hearings, drawing on case law from England, Ireland, and the Bahamas. She stressed that when firsthand evidence could easily be gathered but is not, courts should be very careful about giving much weight to second-hand claims.
Reid was represented by lawyer John Clarke.
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
Source: Google News JM — Crime