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January 2024 court date for BB Coke student on assault charge

Published:Wednesday | November 22, 2023 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
Senior teacher and civic empowerment/culture agent at the St Elizabeth-based Ballard’s Valley Primary School, Rosemarie Steele (third right), is flanked by the five B.B. Coke High School students who acted swiftly in getting their injured schoolmate to a
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Senior teacher and civic empowerment/culture agent at the St Elizabeth-based Ballard’s Valley Primary School, Rosemarie Steele (third right), is flanked by the five B.B. Coke High School students who acted swiftly in getting their injured schoolmate to a medical facility on September 28. The occasion was a recent ceremony at Ballard’s Valley Primary where the students were honoured. They are (from left): Dejuan Powell, Daejuan Gordon, Leon Barnes, Garry Bartley, and Khari Green. Ballards Valley is looking to set up a scholarship fund for the boys.

WESTERN BUREAU:

The 16-year-old B.B. Coke High School student who is accused of savagely beating a younger fellow student unconscious for stepping on his shoes, is booked to make his next appearance in the St Elizabeth Parish Court on January 11, 2024.

The accused student, who is charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm following the September 28 incident which sparked national outrage, was given the new date and had his bail extended when he made his latest appeared in court on Friday, November 17.

In a brief update, the teenager’s attorney, Hopeton Marshall, told The Gleaner that the new date was set after the court was informed that a medical certificate is still outstanding from the prosecution’s case file.

“The outstanding statements were brought in by the investigating officer. However, the medical was still outstanding, and so January 11, 2024, has been set for the next mention of the matter,” said Marshall.

The grade-11 schoolboy, whose name will not be published since he is a minor, was arrested and charged after he was brought into police custody by his mother on Friday, September 29.

His detention took place following reports that one day earlier, on Thursday, September 28, he punched the complainant in both eyes and then kicked him in the head while both were at the Junction, St Elizabeth-based B.B. Coke High School.

According to the allegations, the attack took place after the complainant accidentally stepped on the accused boy’s shoes while they were in a line collecting their cellular phones at a security post on the school compound.

The complainant was subsequently caught in a viral video being carried to a doctor’s office by five other schoolmates following the incident.

He was later transferred from the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester, where he was initially admitted, to the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew for further treatment, including a CT scan.

The complainant was subsequently released from hospital into his family’s care, while his five schoolmates who assisted him – Leon Barnes, Khari Green, Garry Bartley, Daejuan Gordon and Dejaun Powell – were publicly honoured and commended by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

The accused grade-11 student first appeared in the St Elizabeth Parish Court on October 2, four days after the alleged confrontation.

During the in-camera hearing, he was offered bail in the sum of $300,000 following a successful bail application by attorney Marshall.

When the matter was next heard on October 4, the court ordered that the defendant should undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Notably, Marshall had previously suggested that his young client did not have a history of aggression.

However, that claim countered other reports suggesting that before the September 28 incident, the schoolboy had previously been suspended for disrespectful and violent behaviour towards teachers and fellow students.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com