Issa’s lawyer challenges standing of charges from loss of firearm

WESTERN BUREAU:

ONE OF the attorneys representing businessman Michael Issa, the stepfather of nine-year-old Gabriel King, who was murdered on January 13, has challenged his client’s current charges before the court, which stem from a previously dismissed charge of negligent loss of a firearm.

Attorney Michael Hemmings, who is jointly representing Issa alongside attorney Gordon Brown, made his submission before presiding judge Kaysha Grant in the St James Parish Court yesterday in regard to Issa’s current charges of resisting arrest and indecent language. Issa will stand trial in those matters on May 16.

According to reports, Issa was arrested and charged in relation to the matters against him when he went to make a police report on January 13, hours after his stepson was abducted and killed. It is understood that the matter of Issa’s licensed firearm, which went missing on December 17, 2021, and which was subsequently found, is not related to the child’s death.

During yesterday’s proceedings, Hemmings argued that Issa’s current charges have no basis for continuation due to the previous dismissal of the negligent loss of firearm charge.

“On March 17, there was a no-evidence ruling in the case of the loss of firearm. Flowing from that charge is the charge of resisting arrest, and if there is no parent charge, there can be no further charges,” Hemmings told Judge Grant passionately.

“These are offences that could only have taken place if there was a parent offence. Is that what you are saying? But in my view, these offences do not require a parent offence ... the fact that there was no merit to that charge does not put an end to these matters,” Grant replied.

The court was also told that while the prosecution will be relying on two witnesses for its case against Issa, there is a corroborating statement outstanding from one of the police officers in the matter.

Grant subsequently set the matter for trial on May 16 and extended Issa’s bail to that date, while ordering the investigating officer to be bound over to appear in court. A subpoena was also ordered for any additional Crown witnesses in the matter to attend court.

Attorney Gordon Brown, who was charged with obstruction in relation to Issa’s matter, will appear in court regarding that matter on April 22, ahead of his client’s anticipated trial date.

While yesterday’s court hearing is the most recent update regarding the case against Issa, there has been public criticism of the contrasting lack of updates in relation to his stepson Gabriel King’s death, which drew national outrage and condemnation.

King, who was developmentally challenged, was abducted from his mother along the Tucker main road in St James on January 13 after she was reportedly carjacked by assailants who dragged her from her motor car and took the vehicle with the child still in the back seat.

King was later found with his throat slashed at the rear of the vehicle, which was found abandoned off the Fairfield main road in Montego Bay.

His body was cremated on March 4.

One month after the child’s murder, Senior Superintendent of Police Vernon Ellis, of the St James Police Division, told February’s sitting of the St James Municipal Corporation that the information that is revealed to the public about the case must be delivered in a way that will not compromise the police’s investigations.

Ellis also urged the public to refrain from making assumptions or drawing conclusions about the matter even while asking for anyone with information to tell the police what they may know.

It was subsequently revealed on March 10 that investigators at that time were awaiting the forensic results from the crime scene where King’s body was found, with a file to then be sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice on how to proceed.