Man freed of St Thomas double murder, lawyer to seek charges against cops

The prosecution was forced yesterday to offer no evidence in a double murder case after the witness said the police pressured him to lie about the accused man.

Following the disclosure in the St Thomas Circuit Court, the Crown offered no evidence against 30-year-old labourer Delando Brissett of Eleven Miles, Bull Bay, St Thomas. 

Justice Martin Gayle, who was trying the case, then freed Brissett of the murders of Jevaughn Russell and Jerome Bogle, who were shot and killed on January 30, 2018. 

Attorney-at-law Patrick Bailey, who represented Brissett, indicated that he was going to write to the Director of Public Prosecutions for her to consider bringing charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to what the witness had said about the police.

The witness had testified that about 9:50 p.m. on January 30, 2018, he was travelling in a taxi heading for Yallahs Square in St Thomas.

He said his cousin Russell was also in the taxi and Bogle was the driver of the cab. 

The witness said he was sitting in the back of the taxi and while travelling the car was signalled to stop.

The driver stopped and two men, none of whom he knew before, boarded the taxi.  

On reaching Montpelier Square in St Thomas, the men came out of the taxi and one of them pretended to be paying his fare to the taxi driver.

The witness said suddenly both men pulled guns and one started firing at Russell and Bogle.

He said he ran from the taxi while one of the gunmen was firing at him.

He said he managed to jump over a fence and escape.

He said while he was in custody at the Bath Police Station in St Thomas for an offence that was not related to the double murder, the police kept pressuring him to say it was Brissett who murdered Russell and Bogle. 

He also said in his evidence “mi get so fed up, mi all escape custody.”   

He was subsequently taken to an identification parade and the witness said because “dem still a pressure mi, mi point out Brissett but is not him do the crime cause all mi seh was di man dem ah wear red and white ganzie.”

- Barbara Gayle 

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