St. Mary death, Westmoreland killing and police murder trial lead Jamaica crime update

Jamaican police and the courts are dealing with several major matters, including a suspected suicide in St. Mary, a killing in Westmoreland, a murder charge in St. James, a toll road crash near May Pen and testimony in a long-running police murder trial.

In St. Mary, detectives are examining the death of 43-year-old contractor Nero Roberts, also called Nif, of Comsee, Highgate. Police reports said a relative went behind Roberts' home about 10 a.m. after detecting a bad smell and found his partly decomposed body suspended from a tree. Investigators said it appeared to be a suspected suicide, the fifth such case recorded in the parish so far this year.

In Retreat, Westmoreland, crime scene investigators were called out on Wednesday after residents identified a man killed in his sleep as Vinroy Holness, a labourer believed to be in his 40s. Reports said Holness was inside his house in the early morning when he was attacked and his head was partly severed.

In St. James, 31-year-old Dean Watson has been charged with murdering his American wife, 35-year-old Melissa Sam North. Detectives laid the charge on Wednesday after Watson reportedly turned himself in last week with relatives. Sam North, whose address was listed as New York, was taken to Cornwall Regional Hospital on April 29 with multiple injuries and later died. Police believe Watson brought her there and left. He was later believed to have gone towards the Gil community in St. Mary before relatives helped arrange his surrender to police there.

Police also confirmed that at least 421 people were injured Wednesday morning when a Coaster bus struck a concrete median at the May Pen entrance to the Williamsfield toll road. The crash reportedly happened about 7:57 a.m. at the stoplight. Images shared online showed the yellow bus crushed against the barrier, but police could not say whether another vehicle was involved.

At the Home Circuit Court, defence lawyers challenged Agriculture Minister Floyd Green during the trial of Sergeant Steve Roy Mott, Corporal Donovan Fullerton, and constables Andrew Smith, Sheldon Richards, Oral Andy Rose and Richard Lynch. They are charged over the January 12, 2013 shooting deaths of Matthew Lee, Eucliff Dyer and Demark Allen on Acadia Drive, St. Andrew. Fullerton also faces a charge of making a false statement to the Independent Commission of Investigations. Green, an alleged eyewitness from his bedroom window, rejected suggestions that he was not telling the truth. The trial is to continue today.