WESTERN BUREAU:
“You still nuh see what just happen, hmm? Just know one down and one of yours a go down as soon as mi lay hands on her.”
That message, sent on January 29, 2017, at 11:22 p.m., was one of several spine-chilling text messages attributed to Gregory Roberts and sent to his ex-girlfriend’s mother, which were read out in open court on Thursday during the continuation of his murder trial in relation to the 2017 killing of 15-year-old schoolgirl Shineka Gray.
The messages were outlined and read by a communication forensic analyst witness from the Jamaica Constabulary Force, who was continuing to give evidence-in-chief that had started before presiding High Court Justice Bertram Morrison on Wednesday.
Gray, a grade 10 student of the Green Pond High School in St James, went missing on January 29, 2017, after she was last seen alive in Montego Bay while on her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate. Her body was found with multiple stab wounds in Irwin, St James, three days later, on February 1, 2017.
“On January 29, 2017, at 9:21 p.m., a message was sent from Mr Roberts’ phone to the phone number of [ex-girlfriend’s mother], and it reads, ‘It’s over now baby, I just made a sacrifice, [ex-girlfriend] is free now,’” the witness told the court on Thursday. “Then at 9:58 p.m., there is a message being sent from Mr Roberts’ device to [ex-girlfriend’s] mobile number.”
“What was the text sent at 9:58 p.m.?” asked lead prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby.
“It says, ‘You will hear what happen, but just make sure I get my money, you scammed me, oh,’” the witness replied.
The court had previously heard testimony indicating that in the days prior to Gray’s murder, Roberts had accused his ex-girlfriend of conning money out of him and was demanding that she repay it.
Additionally, the witness read another blood-curdling text message that was identified as having been sent from Roberts to his ex-girlfriend’s mother at 6:13 a.m. on February 1, 2017, the day Gray’s body was found.
“At 6:13 a.m. on February 1, 2017, Mr Roberts’ mobile number sent a message to [ex-girlfriend’s mother’s] number, and the message reads, ‘Mi sacrifice someone for [ex-girlfriend] the other night, but she don’t get it, so tell her push her luck,’” the witness read.
The ominous word ‘sacrifice’ has come up on multiple occasions in witness testimony throughout the trial to include evidence from the defendant’s former co-accused, Mario Morrison, in which he stated that Roberts used the word while asking him to video-record Gray’s stabbing.
Morrison, who was arrested alongside Roberts after Gray’s body was found, pleaded guilty to the crime in 2022 and is currently serving a life sentence.
In the meantime, the witness told Thursday’s sitting of other sinister text messages between Roberts and his ex-girlfriend’s mother on January 29, 2017, prior to the foreboding one at 9:21 p.m., including some that suggested the mother was actively fearful for her family.
“At 8:58 p.m. [on January 29, 2017], Mr Roberts sent a message to [ex-girlfriend’s mother], saying ‘Am making a video now with myself doing something. Am going to show it to a morrow [sic], then you going to know who I am.’ Then at 9:07 p.m., [mother] says, ‘I bring the money back,’ and before that, at 9:06 p.m., ‘Please don’t hurt my daughters,’ and ‘Please don’t hurt me, I’m scared,’ and that is repeated twice,” the witness explained.
“These messages, were they sent before or after Mr Roberts sent a message saying ‘Am making a video with myself doing something’?” prosecutor Martin-Swaby inquired.
“These messages were sent after,” the witness answered.
The trial will continue on Monday, January 8, with the same witness continuing to give evidence.
Notably, Roberts’ ex-girlfriend had previously testified for the prosecution that she had received a text message from Roberts that included the same word ‘sacrifice’ and asking if she had received a video from another associate.
That associate, another civilian witness, had earlier testified that Roberts went to him on January 29, 2017, wearing bloodstained clothes, and showed him a video of him, Roberts, stabbing a young girl.
Roberts, whose trial began on November 23, 2023, is being represented by defence attorneys Chumu Parris and Leroy Equiano.