Court of Appeal overturns Tesha Miller's conviction in killing of former JUTC head, orders retrial

The Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of alleged gang leader Tesha Miller in relation to the 2008 murder of former Jamaica Urban Transit Company chairman Douglas Chambers and ordered a retrial.

In a ruling handed down on Friday morning, the court allowed Miller’s appeal, set aside his convictions for accessory before and accessory after the fact to murder, and entered verdicts of acquittal.

The court ordered that a new trial be held "in the interests of justice" in relation to the offence of accessory before the fact. It said this should be done within six months after the conclusion of proceedings in another case in which Miller is currently engaged.

The court further ruled that if the prosecution fails to commence the retrial within that period, the charges are to be stayed unless the delay is attributable to the defence.

Miller had been sentenced in January 2020 to approximately 39 years in prison. He got 38 years and nine months for the accessory before the fact and 18 months on the other charge.

His appeal was argued on several grounds, including claims that he did not receive a fair trial.

A written judgment is to be circulated.

Miller is currently before the Home Circuit Court in an ongoing trial involving alleged criminal activities linked to the reputed Clansman gang, which the police allege he leads.

Justice Frank Williams delivered the orders on behalf of the panel that made the decision.

The appeal was heard in 2023 by justices Jennifer Straw, Nicole Foster Pusey and David Fraser.

Miller, who is represented by attorneys John Clarke and Isat Buchanan, has argued that he was found guilty in an unfair trial, which was presided over by Justice Georgiana Fraser.

Fraser is now a Court of Appeal judge.

“The prejudicial evidence led in this particular case was severely overwhelming, incurably wrong and unfair to the accused and that based on that, this court cannot be satisfied that at trial no miscarriage of justice had occurred,” Clarke had argued.

Clarke told the Court of Appeal that Miller was exposed to injustice when the witness, a former member of the gang, claimed that Clansman is responsible for the deaths of 13 members of his family over a two-year period.

The trial judge reduced the man’s life sentence for a murder to 10 years after he entered a plea deal with the prosecution in Miller’s case.

He later testified that Miller ordered another gangster, Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan, to kill Chambers.

Bryan was acquitted.

Buchanan had also argued that with man accused of Chambers’ murder (the principal felony) freed, the charges against Miller client should have been dismissed based on his view of Section 35 Criminal Justice Administration Act.

The defence also took issue with the trial judge limiting the number of challenges that they could raise at time the jurors were being selected.

Then Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn contended that Miller's appeal had no “merit” but if the court finds any, it should allow the State to retry the alleged leader of the Spanish Town-based Clansman gang

She said then that a retrial should be ordered “given the considerable and overwhelming evidentiary material that is available to the Crown and still would be”.

Llewellyn also defended the trial judge for her “impeccable and extremely fair” conduct of the trial “notwithstanding provocation and occasional disrespect from counsel for the defence”.

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