St Elizabeth Tech reopens after fights; Clarendon murder charge; Portland truck in river; Klansman trial witness testifies

Classes resumed on Monday at St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz, two days after administrators closed the campus following a string of fights last week. Principal Keith Wellington said the school is operating as usual while staff finish investigations and prepare reports for the school board, the Ministry of Education, and any referral services students may need.

Wellington told parents and guardians last Wednesday that teaching had to stop to safeguard the community and shore up discipline. Sources said the shutdown left on site mainly students sitting external exams and some preparing for sports. Reports point to several brawls, including one said to involve a student with a knife. Mid-morning that day, a student was hurt in a clash that drew police; further fights followed, some in view of senior staff.

Wellington said he hopes pupils will refocus after the disruption. He noted the institution is still rebuilding six months after Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, with most repair work expected to finish by the end of next month. Rotating classes have ended as more rooms open up; with fifth- and sixth-formers on exams, enrolment on campus is now just under 1,200 of the school’s 1,670 students.

In Clarendon, sources confirmed that Roma Mitchell, held over the death of Police Corporal Sylvester Reed, has been charged with murder. Reed, 42, a businessman and pastor, was reported missing on 15 April. His decomposing body was found on 28 April in Yorktown. Mitchell, said to have been Reed’s roommate, was already in custody over the disappearance and reportedly led police to the remains. He appeared in court last week and is due back on 21 May for a bail application.

In Portland on Monday evening, a water truck went over a bridge at Clear Spring while returning to Port Antonio after deliveries in the Draper area, near the School of Hope. The driver was not hurt, but the vehicle remained partly in the river as police stopped traffic and a heavy crane from China Harbour Engineering Company worked to recover it, with dozens of residents at the scene.

At the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston, a police sergeant who was a corporal on 11 August 2022 told the trial of 25 alleged members of the so-called Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman gang how he secured the scene where Thompson Pen resident Zamari McKay’s body was found in a rubbish heap with his feet bound. He is the first prosecution witness on counts 28 and 29, which allege that Carlos Williams, Germaine Clark, and Owen Billings knowingly facilitated what the Crown says was McKay’s robbery and murder.

The officer said that about 6:41 a.m., while on patrol along Mandela Highway, he was directed to Lakes Pen Main Road, where he found a male body to the left near a recycling plant. The feet were tied with white marline; the man wore light blue jeans, green underpants, and had a blue cloth over his head. He saw four spent casings and blood on the back. He blocked the body with his service vehicle, narrowed the road to one lane, and managed traffic until Greater Portmore CIB officers arrived.

Under cross-examination for Clark by attorney John Jacobs, the witness sparred over whether he gave one statement in May 2023 or also signed another in January 2026. “That are the only statement I ever write in my lifetime,” he said, drawing laughter. He insisted it was the same account, not written from memory: “Some read nothing from no memory.” When Petra Gabidon asked what he did to protect the scene, he repeated that he parked in line with the body because onlookers would “trample all over the scene.” Told he was not at work that day, he replied: “I’m not a drunkard, you know. I am not sick. I was at work.” The trial resumes today at 10:00 a.m. with further evidence.