Clansman trial pushed back to July 18

The Clansman-One Don Gang trial, which was adjourned last Thursday after Chief Justice Bryan Sykes contracted COVID-19, has been delayed for another week and is to resume on July 18.

The proceedings failed to resume as the judge was still out of chambers.

The trial, which started last September, is now hearing the defence case for the final four of the 28 defendants in the matter.

Kalifa Williams, Pete Miller, Tareek James, and Donovan Richards are seeking to adduce evidence from state records to prove that they were in custody when the prosecution is alleging that they had participated in crimes with the gang.

Their attorneys had requested the prisoners’ admission book from the Spanish Town police lock-up and the dispatcher book from Horizon Adult Remand Centre. However, they faced challenges after personnel who showed up with the books were unable to give admissible evidence because they did not create the information.

Consequently, the matter was postponed for the right persons to be subpoenaed.

However, before the matter was adjourned last Thursday, both the defence and the prosecution infuriated the judge after they failed to examine the information the defence would be seeking to advance.

Justice Sykes had issued instructions the previous day for both parties to go through the logbooks with a view to agreeing on the information.

The 28 defendants are being tried on an indictment with 14 counts under the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal Organizations) Act and the Firearms Act.

Initially, 33 defendants were indicted but five were freed.