Ex-cop, sister submit 12 grounds of appeal against murder conviction

The attorneys for convicted cop Jeffrey Peart and his sister Roxanne, have raised 12 grounds of appeal in the matter now being heard in the Court of Appeal via Zoom.

In December 2014, the siblings were sentenced in the Montego Bay Circuit Court in December 2014 to life in prison for the 2012 murder of 48-year old taxi operator Delroy Frame.

Jeffery Peart who was 26 at the time will be eligible for parole after 35 years, while his sister who was 24 years old will have to serve 16 years before she becomes eligible.

They are challenging DNA and ballistic evidence as well as call data records.

The attorneys also have issues with the direction of the trial judge to the jury. 

Frame's headless body was found in St Ann about one month after he filed a corruption charge against Constable Peart.

The taxi operator told the Anti-Corruption Branch that the ex-cop tried to solicit $30,000 from him following a traffic crash involving their cars.

A sting operation was subsequently set up where Peart was seen collecting a balance of $20,000 from the deceased.

In April 2012, the cop was arrested and later suspended from the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Frame’s body was discovered at Wild Cane, Cave Valley, St Ann on May 19, 2012, and his burnt out car was found about a mile away at White Sand.

After a five-week trial in the St Ann Circuit Court, a 12-member jury deliberated for just over two hours and returned a guilty verdict for the Peart siblings.

The Crown argued that Roxanne Peart was instrumental in luring Frame to St Ann, and led evidence through call data records to show that she had been calling the deceased from May 17-19, 2012.

They also showed that both accused persons were in the coverage area where the body was discovered.

But Gillian Burgess, the attorney representing Jeffrey Peart, argued that the evidence presented to convict her client is circumstantial.

She contended too that her client was given a sentence that is usually reserved for multiple counts.

Meanwhile, Roxanne’s attorney, Carol DaCosta, argued that no evidence was presented by the Crown to show intention on the part of her client.

 "I don’t agree that this evidence of so-call luring, satisfies the condition of intention to commit murder or indeed, intention to lure to kill," she said.

She noted that the prosecution relied heavily on mobile phone data to prove its case.

Senior deputy director of Public Prosecutions, Maxine Jackson, asserted that there was sufficient evidence to satisfy the requirements of common design.

"This case carries the court much further into the realm of technology, forensic technology and digital forensic technology, which within recent times have become a goldmine, so to speak, for investigators, and used significant call data analysis which we hope to persuade the court of the sufficiency of evidence for the convictions to be upheld," she said. 

Crown Counsel Alexia McDonald said there was also independent evidence from a witness placing the ex-cop in the area where the victim was killed.

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