Judge prepared for police ‘manhunt’ of witness

WESTERN BUREAU:

The St James Circuit Court yesterday issued a warrant for a witness to be brought to court by this morning to be directly questioned by the presiding judge in the ongoing trial of Gregory Roberts, the man accused of the 2017 murder of schoolgirl Shineka Gray.

High Court Justice Bertram Morrison issued the warrant yesterday afternoon after the court was told that efforts by the police to locate the witness, who was previously on the prosecution’s indictment to give evidence against Roberts, were unsuccessful.

Roberts is being tried under allegations that he stabbed and killed Gray, a 15-year-old student of the Green Pond High School in St James, on January 29, 2017, hours after she was last seen alive in Montego Bay returning from the funeral of a schoolmate.

Gray’s body was found in the Irwin, St James community on February 1, 2017, three days later.

“What I am prepared to do is to have the police go on the manhunt and find the witness to take her to court. What it will mean is that I am not prepared to go beyond tomorrow morning [Thursday] … if they are unable to locate her between now and tomorrow morning, the case will have to go on, and I want to be as fair as possible,” the no-nonsense Morrison declared yesterday.

The judge was exercising his discretion to directly call upon the witness to give evidence following the prosecution’s closing of its case yesterday, and before Roberts’ attorneys, Leroy Equiano and Chumu Parris, begin mounting their client’s defence today.

This means that the witness, if brought to court, will not be testifying exclusively for the prosecution or for the defence, but will give evidence-in-chief based on questions directly asked by Morrison.

The witness for whom the warrant has been issued was originally one of 18 witnesses who were projected to give evidence for the prosecution during the trial.

However, the prosecution subsequently elected not to use that witness, and Roberts’ defence team likewise declined to call upon the witness for their case.

Additionally, the court was advised that one other anticipated prosecution witness, a former member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, will not be called on to testify as the person resigned from the police force and subsequently migrated overseas.

This means that 16 witnesses in all have testified against Roberts up to the prosecution’s closing of its case yesterday.

Meanwhile, two police witnesses who had testified earlier in the trial were briefly recalled by the prosecution yesterday. The two witnesses were the first responder on the scene where Gray’s body was found, and Westmoreland’s Senior Superintendent of Police Wayne Josephs, who was in charge of criminal investigations in St James in 2017.

The first responder testified that a used condom, a plastic condom wrapper, and a condom box were among the items found at Gray’s death site.

Interestingly, Roberts’ former co-accused Mario Morrison had previously testified on November 30, 2023 that he had sex with Gray after he and Roberts took her to the Irwin site on the night of January 29, 2017, and that he had used a condom which he left on the scene, prior to Roberts stabbing Gray.

Following the first responder’s brief testimony, Josephs responded to questions from Justice Morrison about the date when Roberts was taken into custody following Gray’s murder.

“Mr Josephs, you said that you were the crime officer for St James. The accused man was arrested in St Thomas. Do you recall the date he was arrested?” asked Justice Morrison.

“I believe it was February 5, 2017 … after he was arrested, he was transported to St James and taken into custody, and I believe that was the following day, February 6,” Josephs replied.

With the prosecution having closed its case, Roberts’ defence team is expected to call six witnesses who will testify on Roberts’ behalf over a projected four-day period.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com