Murder charges, St Elizabeth killing and Cornwall hospital concerns lead Jamaica news update

A 28-year-old Kingston carpenter, Kemar Mitchell, has been charged with murder after 13-year-old grade seven student Camellia Paul died in hospital on Tuesday, June 9. Police say the charge stems from a May 9 incident at the home Camellia shared with her mother, where an argument between Mitchell and the mother allegedly became physical. Camellia reportedly tried to intervene and was stabbed in the stomach. Mitchell, of a Kingston 17 address, was charged the following day and is due before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on July 17.

Police are also examining a series of events across Manchester, St Elizabeth and St Ann after 14-year-old Kadiecia McCloud was found dead in Pepper, St Elizabeth. A senior Manchester police source said Maurice Fennell, 50, a licensed firearm holder, had been identified as a suspect after McCloud was reportedly last seen entering a vehicle in Mandeville on Tuesday. Senior Superintendent Carlos Russell later clarified that Fennell was not a Jamaica Constabulary Force member but worked as a loss-prevention officer. St Ann detectives believe Fennell shot himself on Thursday morning in Brown’s Town after sending messages indicating he planned to harm himself. McCloud, a pharmacy technician at Caledonia Mall Pharmacy in Mandeville and a former Gateway Pharmacy employee, was found after 9 a.m. with what appeared to be a gunshot wound. Gateway proprietor Dane Thomas remembered her as trusted and dedicated, and said he would assist her family, including her 11-year-old daughter.

In St James, relatives of 62-year-old tour operator Michael Neita are pressing for answers after he died at Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay. His daughter, Decia Chambers, said he spent his final 22 hours on a chair in the Accident and Emergency Department after arriving on May 25 with severe chest, arm, abdominal and back pain. The Western Regional Health Authority said Neita arrived acutely ill, was treated and stabilised, then moved from emergency care before he died. WRHA clinical coordinator Dr Delroy Freckleton said the authority would support the family’s request for an autopsy and conduct a full investigation.