Eventide Home victims remembered as Klansman murder trial hears evidence dispute

Jamaica on Wednesday remembered the elderly women killed in the Eventide Home disaster, 46 years after fire swept through the Slip Pen Road facility on May 20, 1980. A floral ceremony was held at National Heroes Park, where Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie described the blaze as one of the country’s worst tragedies.

The fire left more than 150 elderly women dead after the building, which had stood since the 1870s, was destroyed. McKenzie said the tragedy exposed serious weaknesses in conditions for residents and helped shape Jamaica’s later approach to care for the elderly, the poor and the indigent.

He said 658 people were living at the home at the time, including 344 men, 255 women and 69 children. The remains of victims were buried in a mass grave at National Heroes Park on May 26, 1980. Cabinet in 2025 approved May 20 as the National Day of Remembrance for those who died in the fire.

In court, the ongoing Klansman matter also continued with arguments over the murder case involving Zamari McKay. An investigating officer testified that he took a question-and-answer statement from the now deceased Paul Pennant in the presence of attorney Paul Gentles.

Prosecutors sought to have parts of the statement placed before the court, but the defence objected, arguing that the material was not properly before the judge and would breach the hearsay rule. Justice Dale Palmer ruled that the statement would not be admitted at that stage, saying the Crown had not yet laid the required foundation.

The evidence relates to counts 28 and 29, tied to the August 2022 robbery and murder of Zamari McKay. Carlos Williams, Germaine Clark and Owen Billings are the accused named under those counts.

Defence attorneys also pressed the officer on forensic work, including DNA testing on identification cards and the material used to bind McKay’s feet. The witness accepted that he had no scientific evidence linking anyone to the killing, but rejected claims that he was unreliable.