Status boundary: this file does not present the former defendants as convicted murderers. Their 2014 convictions were quashed, a retrial was refused and judgments and verdicts of acquittal were entered. “Unsolved” refers to Williams’s disappearance and the absence of a current conviction establishing what happened to him.
The disappearance in August 2011
Official judgments identify Clive Williams by his nickname, “Lizard.” The prosecution alleged that Williams and Lamar Chow had been entrusted with two unlicensed firearms belonging to Adidja Palmer and failed to return them by a deadline. According to the prosecution’s case, Shawn Campbell later summoned the two men to a house at Swallowfield Avenue in Havendale on 16 August 2011.
The Court of Appeal’s 2024 judgment records the allegation that both men were attacked after arriving. Chow said he escaped and had seen Williams motionless. That was trial evidence and a prosecution allegation, not a fact newly adjudicated in 2024. What is uncontested in the later appellate record is that Williams was not seen again and calls to his phone went unanswered.
Police treated the property as a possible crime scene. The judgments describe later fire damage and demolition at the house, searches and forensic work, but no body was recovered. Williams’s continuing absence is the central unresolved fact.
Charges and the 2014 trial
Campbell, Palmer, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were taken into custody in 2011 and prosecuted for Williams’s murder. The case relied substantially on Chow’s account, telecommunications material and circumstantial evidence. The trial lasted 64 working days in the Home Circuit Court.
On 13 March 2014, the four men were convicted by a 10–1 majority. A fifth defendant was unanimously acquitted. The convictions were later upheld by Jamaica’s Court of Appeal in 2020 before the case reached the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Jamaica’s final appellate tribunal.
The existence of a long trial and guilty verdicts is part of the record. It cannot be used as a shortcut around what happened next: those verdicts were nullified after the final appellate court found a fundamental defect in the jury process.
The juror-misconduct problem
On the final day of the trial judge’s summing up, the court learned of an allegation that one juror had offered JMD 500,000 to other jurors for a particular outcome. The judge investigated but allowed the trial to continue with that juror still serving. The jury returned the majority convictions later that day.
The Privy Council concluded that the approach was a material irregularity. Its decision emphasized that the accused had a constitutional right to an independent and impartial tribunal and that the allegedly corrupt juror should not have remained on the jury. The Board also found that the judge had not adequately addressed the risk that the other jurors could be prejudiced by the attempted bribe.
The Privy Council unanimously allowed the appeals on 14 March 2024, quashed the convictions and sent the case back to Jamaica’s Court of Appeal for the limited question of whether a new trial should be ordered.
The 2024 no-retrial decision
The Court of Appeal heard six days of argument in June 2024. The Crown urged a new trial, relying on the seriousness and prevalence of murder and the strength it attributed to the former prosecution case. The appellants raised the passage of time, missing witnesses and exhibits, the demands of another complex trial, health and financial effects, prejudicial delay and constitutional concerns.
In its unanimous judgment delivered on 31 July, the court did not say that the original allegation was trivial or that the former prosecution had presented no case. It found that the original evidence had been sufficient to establish a prima facie murder case and treated the seriousness of the allegation as a factor favoring retrial.
But the court identified powerful countervailing factors. Nearly 13 years had passed since the men were charged; some prosecution and defence witnesses or exhibits were unavailable or unaccounted for; the first trial had consumed substantial time and resources; a new trial would impose further personal and institutional burdens; and the reasonable-time guarantee had been unjustifiably infringed.
Balancing those factors, the court held that the interests of justice did not require another trial. It ordered judgments and verdicts of acquittal for Campbell, Palmer, Jones and St John.
What the acquittals do—and do not—establish
The acquittals are the controlling legal outcome. None of the four men may be described here as currently convicted of Williams’s murder. The earlier verdicts were quashed, and the Court of Appeal used its statutory power to enter acquittals instead of ordering a retrial.
The decision also does not provide a verified account of Williams’s fate. A no-retrial ruling weighs whether another prosecution is just and practicable; it is not a factual reconstruction of an unresolved disappearance. The archive therefore preserves both propositions: the former defendants were acquitted, and Williams remains missing.
This distinction is essential for accuracy and fairness. It avoids treating accusation as guilt while keeping the victim and unanswered question at the center of the file.
Why the case is classified as unsolved
No body has been found, and no current conviction establishes who, if anyone, caused Williams’s presumed death. The court record documents allegations, a defective trial, quashed convictions and final acquittals—but not a legally sustained finding of criminal responsibility.
“Unsolved” is therefore a status description, not an insinuation. It does not invite readers to retry acquitted people through speculation, online rumor or celebrity narratives. Any future update would require a documented investigative or judicial development from reliable sources.
Case timeline
- 16 August 2011 Williams is last seen in the circumstances later alleged by the prosecution.
- 30 September 2011 The four future appellants are taken into custody and later charged.
- 13 March 2014 Campbell, Palmer, Jones and St John are convicted; another defendant is acquitted.
- 3 April 2020 Jamaica’s Court of Appeal dismisses the appeals against conviction.
- 14 March 2024 The Privy Council quashes all four convictions because the handling of juror misconduct made them unsafe.
- 10–18 June 2024 Jamaica’s Court of Appeal hears arguments on whether to order a retrial.
- 31 July 2024 The court declines a retrial and orders judgments and verdicts of acquittal.
Questions readers ask
Who was Clive “Lizard” Williams?
He was the man whose disappearance in August 2011 became the basis of a Jamaican murder prosecution. Court records state that he has never been found.
Was Clive Williams’s body recovered?
No. The official appellate judgments state that Williams was never seen again and that his body has not been found.
Who was convicted in 2014?
Shawn Campbell, Adidja Palmer, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were convicted of murder. A fifth defendant was acquitted.
Why were the four convictions quashed?
The Privy Council held that allowing a juror accused of trying to bribe other jurors to remain on the jury fatally compromised the fairness and safety of the verdicts.
Why was there no retrial?
The Court of Appeal balanced the seriousness and prima facie strength of the former prosecution case against delay, unavailable witnesses and exhibits, the burden of another long trial and constitutional prejudice. It concluded that justice did not require a new trial.
What is the current legal status?
The four convictions are quashed, Jamaica’s Court of Appeal ordered judgments and verdicts of acquittal, and no retrial was ordered. Williams’s disappearance remains unresolved.