Chang wants capital murder for man held in killing of Hanover schoolgirl

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang wants the 42-year-old man in police custody in relation to the killing of nine-year-old schoolgirl Nikita 'Jojo' Noel to be charged with capital murder and locked away for life. 

Chang said the police, in collaboration with forensic experts, are now compiling evidence ahead of formally laying charges against the man for the alleged rape and murder of the Esher Primary School student in Hanover earlier this month. 

“I expect it [the charge] to be capital murder because obviously he knew the child, he knew when she came in from school, so that's a premeditated murder,” said Chang, who is also Jamaica's deputy prime minister, while responding to questions from reporters during a visit in Grange Hill, Westmoreland on Friday.  

“The brutality of the act is difficult, it cannot be comprehended, so I expect the police in conjunction with the forensic lab to put the evidence together to effect the charge and this one is a charge of murder,” he continued. 

“This man is brutal and has to be kept out of the community for life,” the national security minister declared.

“That kind of activity can only be described as brutal. It is difficult to comprehend how you can have a human being behave like that.” 

Speaking on the investigation, Chang said a post-mortem is to be done to collect the required evidence.

“DNA evidence will be crucial and the forensic lab is moving at a good clip, but it will take a little while to have all the evidence together. [In] a case like that you don't want to have any loopholes, it's a very sad thing,” he explained.  

The police reported that on February 1, nine-year-old Nikita Noel, of a Kew address near Lucea in Hanover, was reported missing by her mother, Nordia Edwards, who became suspicious after her daughter didn't come home from school.

And following hours of a community-wide search, led by family members and law enforcers, her lifeless body was found near her home. 

The police, upon examination of her body, have theorised that she was raped and strangled to death. 

- Albert Ferguson 

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.