Judge begins giving instructions to jury in Shineka Gray murder trial

High Court Justice Bertram Morrison has started giving instructions to the jury in the trial of Gregory Roberts, the man accused of the 2017 murder of schoolgirl Shineka Gray, regarding how to arrive at a proper verdict in the case.

Morrison advised them not to allow emotional responses or speculation to influence their verdict.

“You are entitled to draw inferences, that is to say, come to common-sense conclusions based on that which we have said, but you must not speculate. You must not form a theory or conjecture without firm evidence,” Morrison advised the jury.

“Sympathy has no importance or value in determining the facts of this case…equally, you must not allow any feelings of prejudice to operate on your minds.”

The judge also pointed out that it was the prosecution's responsibility to prove Roberts' guilt to the jury throughout the trial, rather than it being Roberts' responsibility to prove his innocence.

“There is no duty on the accused man to prove his innocence, and even though he has attempted to do so by giving an unsworn statement form the dock, it does not mean he is taking on any burden at all,” said Morrison, referencing Roberts' delivery of an unsworn statement on January 11 prior to his defence team's presentation of witnesses on his behalf.

“The burden still rests on the prosecution to satisfy you of his guilt, not on the accused man to satisfy you of his innocence,” Morrison said.

Morrison's advice came shortly after lead prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby concluded her summation of the prosecution's case against Roberts, during which she pointed to alleged discrepancies between the defendant's unsworn statement and a previous statement given to the police at the time of his arrest in 2017.

The judge will continue his instructions to the jury on Monday, when he is expected to review the specific testimony given by witnesses since the start of the trial on November 23, 2023 in the St James Circuit Court.

Gray, a grade 10 student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in the Irwin community in St James on February 1, 2017, three days after she was last seen alive on January 29 that year.

- Christopher Thomas

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