Vybz Kartel and his legal team have made good on their promise to file an appeal in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.
The embattled dancehall star and his three co-convicts file the appeal claiming that they got an unfair trial in the Home Circuit court.
SEE ALSO: Was Shawn Storm On Vybz Kartel Death List Over Missing Guns ?
According to official court documents obtained by Urban Islandz, Vybz Kartel, real name Adidja Palmer, Shawn “Storm” Campbell, Andre St. John, and Kahira Jones based their appeal on the ground that they got an unfair trial, miscarriage of justice, misidentification by witness, and lack of evidence.
Read Vybz Kartel full grounds of appeal below:
* Unfair trial: That the evidence and testimonies upon which the learned trial judge relied to direct the jury and subsequently led to my conviction lacked facts and credibility, thus rendering the verdict unsafe in the circumstance.
* Lack of evidence: during the trial the prosecution failed to present the court any form of substantive material evidence, that is, scientific material, or DNA evidence to link me to the alleged crime.
* Misidentified by witness: That the main prosecution witness wrongfully identified me as person or among any persons who committed the alleged crime.
* Miscarriage of justice: That based on the evidence in respect of a time date, the court failed to recognise the fact that I could not have committed the alleged crime.
The four men were convicted on March 13, 2014 for the August 16, 2011 murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.
Jamaica’s High Court judge Justice Lennox Campbell handed down a life sentence on all four men on April 3, 2014.
Vybz Kartel will be eligible for parole in 35 years when he is 73 years old. His protege Shawn Storm and close friend Kahira Jones will be eligible for parole in 25 years, while Andre St John will have to wait 30 years before being eligible for parole.
The high profile murder trial was marred by police corruption and evidence tampering. But there were also alleged corruption on the part of the defense after a juror was caught trying to bribe the foreman with $500,000.
The accused juror has since being charged and has express his innocence.
Just as they should and at least 2/4 of them will get their conviction or appeal overturned because this story had a lot of reasonable doubts and shadow of a doubt to begin with. I law classes they taught us to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of jurors I cannot comprehend how problem child isnt in prison he was an instigator. There are too many unanswered questions in this case as far as lizard is concerned.
Did they slow it down in court, Ko? To a lot of people, Kartel’s face was clear as day. First you said not enough evidence, then no evidence. I just want to point out that some evidence is still evidence in court. Are you disappointed because you did not see them with faces clearly shown in 3D brutally murdering a human being?
I don’t know what is wrong with some of these people, taking something so serious and making into a joke. I don’t see no joke out of this, according to Jamaica criminal system a man is dead and four man is serving some serious time. They use taper evidence to convic these man, and now every body out a them mama a go bash and have the most negative things to say. A so black blood cloth people tan, them wicked and evil and love to rejoice when another black brother has fallen.
No face look again any body can put in braids and flash a vedio camera across notice how fast they did it .
so wat about the voice notes text mesage witness statements
Let me use the opportunity to say this, the devil is very smart and he knows that people are very easily swayed and led once they are not anchored in Jesus. Yes, I am fully aware that there are those out there who do not believe in God; but if you don’t believe that there are large snakes in the Amazon, does that change the fact that they are actually there? I don’t think so.The devil will set us up with fame, fortune, money and popularity to our own demise. The bible says when we think it’s peace and safety; sudden destruction is upon us. (1 Thes 5:3). Let us turn our eyes on the soon coming king and seek salvation and leave the idols that we have been giving out allegiance for so long, idols in the form of celebrities, money, cars, house, etcetera. Life is so set up from old testament times, there was and will always be a day of judgement, when all men will have to answer to the sins they would have committed. I wish that as you read, these words will find lodgement in your hearts and effect positive changes in your stride towards Jesus’ everlasting kingdom. (Read Mark 16:16).
I swear 90 percent of every single person commenting are just as stupid as the people who put kartel and his co occused behind bars. How the hell can anyone, wether its the judge, the jury, or normal citizens, put FOUR MEN behind bars for life for murder based on such weak evidence. Jamaica im sorry but yoyr court system is either very corrupt or u have the biggest idiots on the planet running your system its sad. Everyone is going to look down on Jamaica and realize how pathetic its court system is. All the evidence being used IS NOT PROOF. Its can all very well be fabricated and only idiots would believe it proves they are guilty. The whole purpose of a trial is that you are innocent unless proven guilty. Any intelligent or good person would know that the evidence being used is not reliable because it can easily be fabricated. U need DNA evidence or footage of the actual crime being comitted with faces shown. Otherwise IT IS NOT PROOF.
Is where you get dat from. They need DNA and video of people actually committing the crime? Research the laws regarding murder and enlighten yourself before embarrassing yourself.
Not enough freaking evidence and that video is so wack and to all the ppl who said they seen kartel bullsh– that clip was so fast I couldn’t see the faces all I’m saying not enough evidence or should I say where is the evidence.HOW YOU GET LIFE WITH NO EVIDENCE J.A JUSTICE SYSTEM IS A MESS THEY ALL CROOKS.
Im sorry but u tell me how the evidence proves anything? There is a video of unknown people in a room talking of murder but u dont see vybz face anywhere. U can hear someone that sounds similar to him but that can be anyone. Thats proof for u? If that is proof in ur mind i feel sorry for u.
WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS AND THE COMING OF THE LORD IS NEAR UPON US. The bible says when we shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, look up because our redemption draws near, (Matthew 24). Now is not the time to be playing around and having idols, its time to worship the God of heaven.
A person who sounds like him ah? You are all talking about this piece of evidence as if it was the only thing in the case. But anyways, this was taken off his phone, not off of your phone, his phone, not my phone. In addition to the pictures, there are the conversations which clearly stated them killing a man. Notice that I said, conversations about killing a man. From that it was for the prosecution to show who that man was. This lead us to the other pieces of evidence as well as the eyewitness.
Tiger General, not taking into account the other pieces of evidence in the case, are you aware that voice recordings have been used to convict many many criminals all over the world brethren? You said it sounds like him; it is the same thing a large majority of those convicts said too. In this case video they had voice, tattoos and a partial shot of his face. May we continue the conversation so that I can show how the prosecution was able to piece together the ‘evidence puzzle’?
Each case is different, dont use other cases as an excuse to say that the voice notes and “video” is credible evidence. There is not one clear shot of Vybz Kartel in the video. There is also not one clear shot of the tattoos so they are irrelevant. Even if there was it could be a fake tattoo. Voice notes could easily be fabricated. Keep in mind that someone must be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt otherwise the person is innocent. If the video is obviously not clearly showing Vybz Kartel and the voice notes can very well be fabricated then logically you can not say he and his co accused are guilty without reasonable doubt. There is clearly plenty of reasonable doubt. The jury who found him guilty as well as the people who agree with the jury, seem to be very bias based on the fact that they do not like Kartels image or he “seems” like he would commit murder. The fact of the matter is u can not say he is guilty based on his image. U need proof that he is clearly guilty beyond reasonable doubt and in this case there simply is plenty of doubt. U do not know him personally and many people would agree that he is actually a very good person.
That is a lot of ‘could be’s’ Tiger. The text messages, videos and voice notes showed intent to commit murder, correct? You didn’t mention the eyewitness who placed the victim at the same. Also, remember that the accused at no time denied the voice notes. Most damaging, I think, was the the different account of the evening that they all gave. In fact, one of them conceded that lizard was at the premises while kartel was there. Kartel said that he has never met the victim anywhere other stage shows. Did you have a chance to read the stupid statements they made from their box in court? Check it out and see how it ties in with the case. Then put it all into a package.
The video, texts and voice notes are all seperate pieces of “evidence”. You have to look at each piece of “evidence” seperately first before you make any sort of final conclusion. Lets start with the video. Before you try to determine if the men are planning murder or not you have to see if vybz kartel and or any of his co accused are even in the video. If they are not clearly in the video then it does not matter what is going on in the video and it should be thrown out as evidence all together. That is the case. You cant say for sure kartel is in the video therefor should not be used as evidence. There is reasonable doubt that he is in the video. Now the text messages. It is known that his phone has been tampered with. Case closed. Text messages can not be used as evidence if the phone has been tampered with. Now for voice notes. U can not prove anyone is guilty by using voice notes alone. With todays technology the voice notes can very well be fabricated. Even if that was him saying those things it still does not prove murder as he does not say anything about a murder actually taking place. Now for witness acounts. U cant base any ruling on what a witness says without supporting evidence. So all together, when you look at all the so called “evidence” it points to it all being a set up. That is not evidence only a fool would look at the so called “evidence” and say yea that proves hes guilty.
so if you have a witness how it go whe u say witness statement nuh eligible for a conviction
That’s the samething I said, and what burn mi, is how everybody have the most negative things to say and them don’t know the man. The system in jamaica is corrupted and many know if them what to bring u done ant nothing can be done about it. whats killing them is that Vybe Kartel had a style and swage that people were jealous of.
How in God’s name four man can get convicted with no real hard evidence, one can clearly see that this was a set up
So we have to know someone to say negative things about him or her, ah? Well, since I do not know Bruce Golding, I am going to say positive things like “he did not give guns to his party supporters in the 70s and 80s” even though he said on that he did so. Since I do not know the Talibans, I am going to say that there way is the best way for all of humanity. That is how to go about it, right? Was / is Kartel the only dj with a style and swag that people are envious of? How many other djs are behind bars convicted of murder? What is this “no real hard evidence” you mentioned? Are you aware that kartel’s defense team wanted the entire evidence thrown only on the grounds that someone used one of the phones…one of the phones. Kartel had multiple phones. All your worl boss fool lawyers did was try to discredit the police force and took the youth’s money. Where were the witnesses for the defendants? The defense had nothing to use but what you all hate, the police, and when that didn’t work, straight prison. The system didn’t find kartel guilty. Based on all the real concrete evidence that kartel provided the police, he was found guilty by jurors who were selected by kartel’s defense team and the prosecution…normal people like you and me.
Kartel was convicted on hatred and bias Shawn and the rest of them was conviction by association. This story has a lot of reasonable doubt so therefore there are grounds for appeal
the evidence they used toconvicted these men r weeak there is no body of the victim… in most of the video there’s more than 10 ppl how come only 4 went to jail
Thats exactly what im saying. It was clearly a set up. The people who set him up are even constantly commenting on these stories trying their best to make it seem like they are really guilty and that the evidence really proves them guilty. But anyone with common sense knows that it was a set up. Dont be decieved by these liars.
It wasnt even that there isnt a body the whole story is hogwash
so the witness a tell lie and y was shawn storm telling his girlffriend to delete texts after the convo they had
maybe cause he was yapping about guns and didnt wanna get crap it doesnt prove he murdered anyone its just all talk you have to prove murder beyond a shadow of a doubt and reasonable doubt. They hate Kartel and Shawn is affiliated with Kartel so what do you expect the outcome to be.
No need to insult. Actually my degrees tell me how intellectual and smart I am. To be honest if a group of men I associate with have already battered me to the point that there is blood on their clothes and I know these men and how they think I think the surprise factor is out the window. And sweetheart a fool follows blindly without question. I am far from being a fool, just a critical thinker so I ask questions okay as I did in my earlier post so maybe someone with more facts can fill me in. You need to get your life.
I am confused. So can anyone answer these questions. First the video at the house, this was pre – murder right? So why the blood on the floor and on the guys shirt? Also if a person is beaten to death or throat cut where is the blood? When certain arteries are severed there will not just be blood on a t-shirt or a few spots on the floor, it would be everywhere ( as a person working in Health care for many years I know) also has there been any other arrests made? Since there were quite a few people in the video with VERY distinguishing tattoos that shouldn’t be a problem to find and arrest these men, I mean the most unskilled, mediocre law enforcement officers could execute this. Or is the investigation over because they got who they wanted? I must admit there is a voice on the tape that sounds like Vybz but I could buy software that can do that and the man’s voice is everywhere making that very easy to put together. I’m not proclaiming to know who is guilty or not, but something seems off with it all. I wish I could post a picture right now of how a crime scene where someone was decapitated would look and how anyone in the vicinity would look. As for that dull pick axe, REALLY. only to bludgeon a person maybe. I was actually on the fence about the whole thing until the footage.
Very good point. People jump on the lock up Vybez Kartel wagon without actually looking at all the so called evidence and none of it match up. There are holes in everything they present as evidence in the court.
so what about the witness
You dumb motherf who think he is so intelligent. Clearly in the end of the frigging video Kartel showed his face!!!!! You idiot. The blood you refer to clearly came from them already beating lizard up in another room. Now they are plotting to kill him and how they will do it. They are planning to bring him in that room to catch him by surprise and kill him. Thats why the man with the axe was hiding behind the door idiot!!!! Hence the whispering also to not alert Lizard and his other friend if his fate. You dumb motherf. Use your brain before posing like an intellectual! People like you make mi temper boil!
Am with u 100%! if this is what they call true evidence then i dnt see it. i dont see anything that points to kartel and am wondering how is it they axe or watever u call it…lizard and there are no signs to show? look at the men them in the video…where is the blood and the men dem dont even look like them start even do anything! its like some idlers who dont have anything to do and just wnt to make a video or better yet…planning on what they gonna do to whosoever they get their hands on.
Thank you ! You are the most intelligent person I’ve seen on this blog so far the rest of this people are just mad because he makes more money than them and ghetto government let’s them help them to rob the poor so they want to see this man go because he is talking about there corrupted ways.
The blood on the floor is from the beating they gave him before they kill him by cut his throat and chop off his head…and since Kartel burn down part of his house where the crime is alleged to take place It may have not be possible to gather the dna evidence..I hope this explains things.
so wat about the witness u ever listen to his testimony
appeal for what ….i thought kartel was intelligent ,thats what i heard ,him go to good school . Intelligence is beat the man kick him up him ass let him live, THEN GO BUY MORE SHOES ….Thats intelligence , tell me im lieing
Free up Kartel, G4L!
Kartel fi stop act like a gal an do him time him make him friend them duppy up lizard because him a coward an couldn’t do it him slef, him fi stop take the public fi idiot a talk bout appeal like him innocent. Which Juge in a them right mind a go let him out, plus him a informer, the jerky fi go seek God
Omar well said
Let’s see what happens now.
The truth can never change and an appeal to try and change the truth will always be met by a truthful rejection.
After the boss is free I hope the government bring in a new law that all of you who can’t tell them where your friend r family dissappear to gonna be sentence for life behind bars .
Youth u sill in the dark I
Was like u hard to belive, mi was a kartel fan, but u c the man a Jamaica biggest idiot with all the evidence coming out mi lose of a him, mi even burn him book wi mi always a read. R.i.p kartel
You just born wah day how you sound I’ve seen man with no character and killed more people if you say Kartel did it r ordered the killing walk free in the court of appeal there may be another twist to the story your so confident gonna stay around with the evidence the police have produce it more looks like feelings and the putting Vybex Kartel away but it’s not Vybez Kartel on trial it’s Mr .Palmer.
Don’t try 2 separate the artist (kartel) from da man (palmer) because at the end of the day…he himself chose to run an illegal gun and drug ring. Knowing that he is influential and people follow the tattoo s and skin bleaching he gives this half ass excuse that hes not a political leader and ray ray but if ur influential u have to be cautious of what u do. Now that your in jail. Now u have a family and blah blah..that was something to think about b4 u were ordering beatings and hits on ppl.
Huh I bet you not from Ja
Yardie u see the video just release . Kartel will Roth in jail .
stfu who did u see in the video
A him sell out the slaves Fi money all I see is a bunch of faggots a try to look like bad man .
A him help sell out the slaves for money ! All I see in the vedio is a bunch of faggots a trying to look like real bad man free the boss.
Yardie you and this boy can guh fu– each other after this that we can cut both of your heads off.
This appeal is in vain because these things take year in the Jamaica injustice system. Vybz Kartel life and career is over and he has no one but himself to be blamed for his downfall
All of this is like a dream to you did you see Popcaan in the short pants too yuh fu—ng badmind fool.
Yea but where there a will is always a way u dig.but in a badness never send a pickney fi do bigman tings u z mi
Fi real….
Appeal gonna gather dust
All of this is like a dream ain’t it.