Bloomfield accused killer’s case heads to Kingston
Published:Saturday | February 22, 2020 | 12:17 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
The case against Simeon Sutherland, the man charged with the murder of then Portland Eastern Member of Parliament Dr Lynvale Bloomfield, has been transferred to Kingston for trial.
Attorneys-at-law Peter Champagnie, QC, and Samoi Campbell were successful in their application to have the case moved from the Port Antonio Parish Court.
The matter will be mentioned on March 18.
Champagnie told The Gleaner that in the interest of fairness and justice, the matter ought to have been tried in Kingston.
The request was made on the basis that the deceased, Bloomfield, was the sitting member of parliament for the constituency and operated a medical practice in the area of the courts.
“There was the real possibility of bias against the accused bearing in mind also that the person who died was popular, certainly among his own electorate,” he said.
Also, as a condition of bail, the accused was required to reside outside of the parish and his family has relocated since.
Champagnie said that he discovered that a significant number of the witnesses to be called in the case did not reside in Portland but in St Catherine and Kingston.
“The case is one where you don’t have an ‘I see’ witness, but what you have is other bits of evidence, and those bits of evidence are likely to come from police officers who investigated the case who are not based in Portland.”
Bloomfield was found with multiple stab wounds on the morning of February 2, 2019, at his Passley Gardens home in Portland.