Appeal court frees St Catherine mechanic as police seize guns and Cuban nurses return

A St Catherine auto mechanic has been released after the Court of Appeal overturned a murder conviction that had stood for more than six years.

Kenneth Pottinger was sentenced in January 2020 to life imprisonment, with 23 years to serve before parole eligibility, following a September 2019 jury verdict for the killing of Navar Powell. Powell was shot along St John's Road in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on 12 February 2008. On Wednesday, a panel comprising Court of Appeal President Justice Marva McDonald Bishop, Justice Nicole Simmons and Justice Marcia Dunbar Green allowed the appeal and quashed the conviction. Attorney Somaiya Campbell argued that the identification evidence and the trial judge's directions to the jury made the conviction unsafe. Written reasons from the court are expected to follow.

At trial, King's Counsel Peter Champagnie had sought to withdraw the case from the jury over weaknesses in the identification evidence, but the trial judge left the matter for the jury to decide.

Separately, 33-year-old St Mary bar operator Damar Pennington of Tremolesworth District, Highgate, is facing additional charges tied to women he met through dating applications. Constant Spring police said Pennington was charged on Friday with larceny by trick and unauthorised access to computer data. He is accused of meeting a woman through a dating app on Sunday 26 April, arranging to meet her the next day in Half Way Tree, then driving her to the Temple Hall main road in St Andrew. While she was inside a supermarket, he allegedly left with two cell phones, about $80,000 in cash, bank cards and personal documents. Police said unauthorised transactions totalling roughly $100,000 were later made from her accounts. Pennington was positively identified during an identification parade on 3 July; his court date is being finalised.

He was already charged on Tuesday with forcible abduction, rape and robbery with aggravation in connection with a separate incident. Police said that in April 2026 he met a 43-year-old woman online through Tinder and they arranged to meet on the afternoon of 25 June along Hagley Park Road in St Andrew. She was allegedly driven to Portmore, St Catherine, threatened with a handgun, raped at a motel on Port Henderson Road, then taken back toward the corporate area while the accused allegedly made off with her handbag, bank cards and cell phone. She reported the matter and identified him in an identification parade.

St Andrew South police seized two illegal 9 mm pistols and 15 rounds of ammunition in separate raids under Operation Iron Shield less than 12 hours apart. Around 6:00 p.m. on Friday, officers found a Taurus pistol with a magazine holding 11 rounds concealed among debris at the rear of a property on Crescent Road in Kingston 11. No arrest was made. About 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, an operation support team responding to an illegal party on Solitaire Road in Cockburn Gardens came under attack from armed men. One man was shot, taken to hospital and admitted. A search of the area recovered another 9 mm pistol and four rounds of ammunition.

More than 50 Cuban nurses are expected to return to Jamaica's public health system months after the decades-old medical cooperation programme with Havana ended in March. The arrangement was discontinued after Jamaica and Cuba failed to agree on terms for a new technical cooperation deal following the expiry of the previous agreement in February 2023. About 40 Cuban nurses remained in the island, with others who had left now granted permits to return.

Former Jamaica Medical Doctors Association president Dr Winston Dawes said the departure of Cuban personnel had worsened nurse shortages and added pressure on hospitals such as the University Hospital of the West Indies. He urged officials to acknowledge staffing gaps rather than shift blame when incidents occur.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said he would verify specific claims but noted that intern numbers had been lower than in past years, though a larger cohort was expected in July. He said referral hospitals naturally carry heavier burdens and stressed that efficient management and triage are essential when demand spikes.