Woman accused of murdering husband walks free

A St Thomas woman who allegedly confessed to an obeah man that she murdered her husband walked free from the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston last Thursday.

Prospect resident 47-year-old Joyce Leslie was found not guilty by a seven-member jury in relation to the murder of her husband, Andrew Leslie, a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) private.

Private Leslie disappeared in October 2008, and has not been seen or heard from since.

Reports are that Leslie told a spiritual worker that she paid $30,000 for her husband to be murdered.

Our news team understands that the alleged spiritual worker died after giving evidence against Leslie.

THE STAR gathered that the verdict was reportedly reached due to lack of evidence to establish where and how Private Leslie was allegedly killed.

During the trial, the prosecution relied on a handwritten statement that was allegedly written by Leslie as instructed by the spiritual worker.

A copy of the paper was presented at court after the original could not be located.

However, a handwriting expert testified that he could not conclusively determine that Leslie wrote it.

Throughout the trial, the accused woman professed her innocence, and denied knowing anything about the disappearance of her husband.

Leslie's attorney, Hensley Williams, told the jury that the case was speculative and unrealistic since no evidence was produced to show where and how Private Leslie died.

The jury returned a not-guilty verdict after deliberating for 45 minutes.