Cops convicted of fatal shooting each granted $1 million bail pending appeal
Published:Wednesday | December 23, 2020 | 9:58 AM
The Court of Appeal yesterday granted $1 million bail each to two policemen convicted of a fatal shooting.
As part of their bail, stringent reporting conditions were imposed pending the hearing of the substantive appeal filed by Constable Christobel Smith and Gareth Davis.
In making the bail application, their lawyers argued that the trial judge had failed to properly direct the jury on the issue of self defence.
Smith was represented by Queen’s Counsel Caroline Reid-Cameron while Davis was represented by Queen’s Counsel Peter Champagnie and Kemar Robinson.
The constables, who were attached to the now-disbanded Mobile Reserve Unit, were convicted and sent to prison on January 7, 2020, for the killing of Omar Marshall, a resident of Blake Road, Kingston.
Smith and Davis were convicted by a jury in November 2019 and were slapped with a prison term of six years and 15 years respectively.
In Smith’s case, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter while Davis was found guilty of murder.
The policemen, at their trial, had argued that the deceased had pulled a firearm at them and in shooting the deceased, they acted in self defence.
Witnesses for the prosecution, however, had testified that the cops acted in cold blood.
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