Carl Beech, one of the 27 remaining defendants in the Clansman One-Don Gang trial, was freed of anti-gang charges Tuesday afternoon, February 28, 2023.
Chief Justice Bryan Sykes found Carl Beech not guilty of being a part of a criminal organization and two counts of facilitating an applicable offense by a criminal organization.
The police had charged Beech with facilitating the murder and conspiracy to murder of a man known only as ‘Outlaw’ on November 2, 2017, in Lauriston, St Catherine.
A former Clansman gang member had testified that Beech was indeed a member. And that while he was transporting defendant Tareek James to carry out the murder, Beech volunteered to come along.
The unnamed witness, one of the gang’s drivers and a former community don, testified that when Beech saw Tyeek James, he said, “From dem man yah inna de car mi know say somebody ago dead.”
The witness said Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan had allegedly ordered the murder of Outlaw and instructed James to do the killing. The witness also said Blackman told him to carry defendants Michael Whitely and Dylon McLean, but he saw Beech while picking up those men.
But, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes was not satisfied that the evidence connected Beech to the gang. In handing down his verdict, he noted
“The evidence by itself does not prove that Beech was a member of the organization or that he knew that James and the driver were gang members.”