Supreme Court stalls Accompong Maroon election as police murder and gang trials advance in Kingston

A Supreme Court judge on Wednesday halted nomination and election exercises in the Accompong Maroon community in St. Elizabeth, disrupting Colonel Kwasi's plan for a colonel vote on 22 May after nominations set for Friday 15 May 2026.

Justice Ann Hart-Hines granted an ex parte interim injunction staying both steps until 10 June 2026 or further order. A hearing on the amended application is fixed for 10 June at 10:00 a.m. by video conference. The order must be served on Richard Corrie. Phillips, Trail and Company represents Merrick Row, a former Accompong colonel and claimant who wants Kwasi barred from acting as colonel, an interim Maroon Council, an Election Council, and a finalized voters' list. Row says polls due since 18 February were called without fair notice while the list was incomplete, and he disputes a constitution document Kwasi relies on. Kwasi told Nationwide News Network the Maroon constitution is ratified and gazetted and guides the process.

At the Home Circuit Court on Thursday, a police sergeant described how six officers reacted when arrested in 2019 over the 12 January 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Eucliffe Dyer, and Mark Allen. Constable Orlando Rose allegedly said, "The devil is a liar." Sergeant Simroy Mott allegedly said, "Me no murder nobody." Corporal Donovan Fullerton and Constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, and Richard Linton made no comment. Defence attorney Hugh Wildman confirmed Rose's words; Justice Sonel Bertram-Linton stopped a follow-up question after prosecution objection. Fullerton also faces a false-statement charge to the Independent Commission of Investigations. The witness on 4 May collected ballistic envelopes from the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine for prosecutor Kathy Ann Pike. The trial continues.

Justice Dale Palmer will rule Monday on whether to recall two witnesses in the trial of 25 alleged Tesha Miller faction members of the Clansman gang. The Crown seeks to admit under section 31D of the Evidence Act a statement by Sashaneese Roberts, who died in February 2021, about the 7 February 2020 murder of Noah Smith at the Yallahs police station in St. Andrew on counts 15 and 16. Defence counsel Dennis Hinson for Michael Wildman, Jerome Speck, Nashaun Guest, and Giovanni McDonald said recall would shore up identification evidence weakened on cross-examination; the assistant director of public prosecutions said it would only connect the statement to the deceased, with further cross-examination allowed.