Munga Honorable freed as murder case collapses in Kingston t

The bigger question now is not what happened in the courtroom, but what Munga Honorable’s freedom means for the dancehall road ahead. After nine years of legal limbo, the veteran entertainer, Damian Rhoden, walked out of the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston with his murder case collapsed and his public standing suddenly reset.

The case against Rhoden and co-accused Sheridan Gordon fell apart on Friday, June 12, when prosecutors offered no further evidence in relation to the 2017 killing of Cleveland Smith in Ackee Walk, St Andrew. The trial had only started the previous week, but the Crown’s case hinged on a sole eyewitness whose evidence was found to contain too many inconsistencies. Once that witness was broken down under cross-examination, the prosecution could not push forward.

Rhoden was represented by Christopher Townsend and Chadwick Berry, while King’s Counsel Peter Champagnie and Sayeed Bernard appeared for Gordon. Townsend said the defence had cross-examined the Crown’s only witness to the point where credibility “fell down significantly,” and Champagnie said the witness admitted that parts of her police statement were untrue. In practical terms, the defence did not just survive the prosecution’s case, it stopped it cold.

That collapse came after years of delay that kept the matter hanging over both men. Witnesses had migrated, some police witnesses had resigned or moved away, and the case had repeatedly stalled before reaching trial. In May 2025, Justice Leighton Pusey extended both defendants’ bail to June 24, 2025, after the matter again ran into problems getting witnesses lined up. One report also said the deceased was a cousin of Mr Vegas, which added to the attention around the case inside the local music scene.

For Munga, the release lands as more than a legal victory. He has spent years carrying the weight of a serious murder allegation while still remaining a recognizable name in Jamaican dancehall, with breakout momentum built around his mid-2000s rise and 2007’s “Bad from Mi Born.” That makes this one of the clearest career resets he has had in years, and it opens the door to bookings, radio conversation, and the kind of industry re-engagement that was hard to imagine while the case still hung over him.

His immediate reaction matched the moment. IRIE FM reported that Munga simply said “Free” and thanked Christopher Townsend, while another report said the ruling came one day after his birthday. After all the delay, the long legal shadow has finally lifted, and dancehall will now be watching to see how quickly Munga Honorable moves back into the center of the conversation.