WESTERN BUREAU:
AFTER BEING a regular item on the Lucea Resident Magistrate's Court sheet for four years, the shooting of cattle case which involved former mayor, Mon-crieffe Leslie came to a close last week. The former mayor was slapped with an $8,000 fine or face an alternative 60 days imprisonment.
Mr. Leslie, a former People's National Party (PNP) councillor and deputy mayor at the time of the incident, was found guilty of unlawful killing of cattle and unlawful wounding of cattle by RM William Campbell.
He was fined $5,000 or 30 days for the unlawful killing of two cows and $3,000 or 30 days for wounding another. The cows had a price value of roughly $80,000.
The former mayor said he's planning to appeal the verdict because there were discrepancies in the witnesses testimony.
According to the evidence that was led in court, in January 1996, the complainant Melbourn Little, a 58-year-old farmer and mechanic of Haughton Grove in Hanover, and owner of 18 heads of cattle sought and obtained permission from a Cordell Petgrave to allow his cattle to graze on a 12-acre property of land he leased from the Government.
The lands leased by Mr. Petgrave adjoined two acres of land occupied by Mr. Leslie which was fenced. The animals reportedly forced their way out of the property and went onto Mr. Leslie's property.
On February 18, 1996 at about 12:15 p.m., Mr. Leslie visited his property, where he does cattle rearing and cultivation of agricultural produce and discovered several heads of cattle roaming on his farm, he reportedly drew his licensed firearm and fired several shots hitting three 2 red poles and one white Indian.
Two died instantly, while the other was injured.
An investigation was launched into the matter and the case file was sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who ruled that Mr. Leslie be charged for the offences in late 1996.
The Gleaner has learned that lawyers representing Mr. Little and Mr. Leslie, who became mayor officially in late 1997, had made attempts to settle the matter by way of compensation. However, they could not agree on a figure, hence the matter went to trial.
Efforts to get a comment from attorneys-at-law Albert Morgan, who represented the complainant and Shaun Reynolds, who represented Mr. Leslie were unsuccessful.
Mr. Leslie, who has the distinction of being the youngest person to have donned the mayoral robes in Hanover's political history was councillor for the Chester Castle division but lost his seat in the 1998 Local Government election to Keturah Carey of the Jamaica Labour Party.
