Witness denies making incriminating affidavit in murder case

Livern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter

A ‘witness’ has denied dictating a statement to a police constable which was used to arrest a Trelawny man on murder and gun-related charges.

Omar Jarrett, 43, was jailed for 74 days before he was granted bail on September 19 last year in the St Ann Bay Parish Court, records show.

He and another man, Calbert Harris, were charged by the St Ann police for murder and illegal possession of firearm and ammunition related to the shooting death of entertainer ‘Crown Boss’, real name Demario Penado, at a guesthouse in the parish in April 2022, according to court records.

Jarrett was freed in the St Ann’s Bay Parish Court on January 8 after a judge ruled that the charges should not be escalated to the High Court for a trial, the Court Administration Division confirmed last Friday.

Among the evidence that led to his acquittal is a second statement the witness gave another detective indicating that he was “surprised” to learn that he was needed in a murder case because he made no such report to the police.

The witness acknowledged giving a statement to a constable at the Falmouth Police Station, but said it was in relation to a robbery at his Trelawny home.

“The accused [Jarrett] was discharged. There was a no-order made for committal proceedings,” a court spokesperson told The Gleaner.

Harris was released by the police without charge three days after he was apprehended, according to law enforcement sources.

Jarrett, a farmer from the community of Spicy Hill, recounted that the six months in a police lockup left him feeling hopeless.

He claimed, too, that he was severely beaten by a policeman while in jail and again by cops who showed up at his farm after his release enquiring about what he reported to the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM).

INDECOM has oversight responsibility for the security forces.

“I even felt, at times, to kill myself. My entire life has been messed up and even now I am feeling severe back pain and can hardly work on my farm,” he said.

The claims by Jarrett and the witness have triggered a slew of investigations, authorities have confirmed.

The Inspectorate and Professional Standards Oversight Bureau (IPROB) has indicated that it is investigating possible “breaches of the ethics and integrity policy” related to the claim by the witness that he never gave a statement implicating Jarrett in any murder, according a receipt he said he was given when he made a complaint on October 6 last year.

Commanding officer for the Trelawny police, Deputy Superintendent Winston Milton, acknowledged that he was aware of the witness’ claim through social media and said that the entire issue is the subject of an investigation.

“This is not something I can comment on,” Milton said during an interview last October.

INDECOM has confirmed that it is probing an “assault complaint” made by Jarrett on October 9.

Donnovan Collins, the attorney representing Jarrett and Harris, has already filed a lawsuit against the State seeking damages for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.

“From the first day I attended court in this matter and the prosecution served me with the statements on their file I became suspicious,” said Collins, a former member of the police force.

“I can look at a file and quickly know when something is fishy. The men should not have been charged with those offences.”

The witness, who The Gleaner has opted not to name, acknowledged that in June last year several boxes were stolen from his home, causing him to make a report and a statement at the Falmouth Police Station.

The statement was recorded by a constable there, he said.

Jarrett and Harris were arrested and charged by the police for the robbery, but those charges were subsequently dropped because the witness “didn’t want to bother” with the case.

It is unclear how cops in St Ann got the statement, which, according to Collins, was the basis for the charges laid against Jarrett and Harris.

The witness claimed, in his second sit-down with another detective, that the constable who recorded his first statement came to his home “three different times” in July last year with a statement he wanted signed.

On the first visit, he claimed the constable indicated that “something wrong” with the statement and that he needed to “re-sign” it.

“He did not read it over to me and I did not read it over myself because I figured it was the same information about the boxes. I signed the statement and he left,” the witness wrote in his second statement.

On the second visit, he claimed the constable showed him “a statement” and “told me that the date was wrong where my signature was and asked me to sign it over with the date the house break-in happened”.

“The statement had my name on it and I believed him, so I signed over the statement and date it,” he said,

The witness said in July last year he went to the Clarke’s Town courthouse and heard the constable indicating, in court, that Jarrett had a case in St Ann and “I was a witness”.

“I was surprised.”

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.con