Jury in Shineka Gray murder trial now deliberating

The jury this morning retired for deliberation in the case of Gregory Roberts, the man on trial the 2017 murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Shineka Gray.

The seven-member jury headed to the jury room at 11:10 am, shortly after presiding High Court Justice Bertram Morrison concluded his instructions to them regarding how they should review the evidence in their deliberations.

"You have to decide if his defence has been made out...is it that Gregory Roberts, in his innocence, is saying that he was framed? You put that side by side with what the witnesses were saying," Morrison told the jury.

"You must decide, if you can, on a unanimous verdict, that is to say, a verdict on which you all agree," Morrison added.

The judge also reminded the jury of several text messages attributed to Roberts, which were presented as evidence for the prosecution, regarding hostile correspondences between himself and his ex-girlfriend as well as between him and his ex-girlfriend's mother.

"He is not obliged to prove his innocence, but you are to take into consideration what he has said. If you are left in doubt as to whether he was involved in the killing of young Shineka Gray, that doubt will have to be resolved in his favour," Morrison said regarding Roberts.

"Even if you reject his version of events, you will still have to go back to the prosecution's case to be sure if you are satisfied."

Earlier in the trial, Roberts gave an unsworn statement in which he claimed to have only been hired as a taxi operator to provide transportation for Mario Morrison, his former co-defendant.

However, he made no mention of Gray in his statement.

Gray, a student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was found dead in the Irwin community in the parish with multiple stab wounds on February 1, 2017, three days after she was last seen alive in Montego Bay returning from the funeral of a schoolmate.

- Christopher Thomas

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