Accused in murder of attorney Clover Graham a no-show for trial
Published:Friday | January 13, 2023 | 11:26 AM
A bench warrant has been issued for the St Catherine labourer charged with the murder of attorney-at-law Clover Graham after he failed to turn up for the start of his trial on Friday.
Quron Patterson, otherwise called 'Q', of Gordon Pen in Spanish Town, St Catherine, whose bail was extended on Thursday, was expected in the Home Circuit Court at 10 a.m.
However, his attorney, Zara Lewis, told the court that she has been unable to reach Patterson since speaking to him at 7:45 a.m.
She said she also had difficulties reaching his relatives.
At 11:30 a.m. Patterson was still not present in court.
Graham was found with her throat slashed in bushes at Caymanas Estate, St Catherine, on August 19, 2012, hours after she was reported missing by her family.
The Crown is alleging that Graham, who was employed to the Legal Aid Clinic in Kingston, was taken from her home and then murdered.
An autopsy revealed that she died from an incised wound to the neck.
Patterson was among three men who were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to murder in October 2012 in connection to her killing.
But the other two defendants – Simeon Lewis, a contractor, and Shannon Campbell, a labourer, also from Gordon Pen – have since decided to give evidence for the prosecution.
Attorney-at-law Zara Lewis is representing Patterson.
Graham was a lecturer at The University of Technology, Jamaica, and the Norman Manley Law School on the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies.
She also worked as the United Nations High Commission on Refugees' honorary liaison officer in Jamaica.
Her murder came five years after her son Taiwo McKenzie and his girlfriend Jhannel Whyte were killed in a similar fashion by men who demanded a ransom after a motor vehicle crash.
-Tanesha Mundle
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