Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator

The appeal brought by the Reverend Al Miller against his conviction last year for negligence resulting in the loss or theft of his licensed firearm could not proceed yesterday because of a change of legal representation.

Attorney-at-law Robert Fletcher, who is now representing Miller, said he needed more time to prepare the case.

The Court of Appeal granted the adjournment to take the case out of the list. President of the Court of Appeal Seymour Panton ordered that the appeal must be heard before the end of the year.

Fined $80,000

Miller, who is the pastor of the Fellowship Tabernacle in St Andrew, was fined $80,000 or three months in jail. The fine has been paid.

Miller had claimed, in his statement to police investigators, that he left the gun in his car when he and his daughter stopped at the Mico Practising Centre in Shortwood, St Andrew, to pick plums on January 22 last year.

However, in finding him guilty, Senior Resident Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams rejected the statement, saying she had doubts about some areas of it.

Miller, who was represented at the time by attorney-at-law Leslie Campbell, filed an appeal challenging his conviction.

He is challenging sections of the Firearms Act which he is contending are in conflict with the Jamaican Constitution.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com