More text messages in Shineka Gray murder trial shown in court

More threatening text messages from Gregory Roberts, the man on trial for the 2017 murder of schoolgirl Shineka Gray, were disclosed in the St James Circuit Court today.

In continuing his evidence-in-chief, a forensic analyst witness from the Jamaica Constabulary Force showcased several increasingly threatening messages sent by Roberts to his ex-girlfriend hours before Gray went missing on January 29, 2017.

“You will always think you're right because every one of your family pick up for you, that's why you're so spoiled…mi $20,000 nah go to waste,” the witness testified in reading out a text which was identified as having been sent by Roberts at 10:36 a.m. that morning.

The money being referenced to in that text message is in relation to money that Roberts reportedly accused his ex-girlfriend of conning him out of.

“You going to see something you never see before tomorrow in Jamaica, and that is when you going to say I'm crazy…action speak much louder, and tomorrow is not very far from now,” the witness quoted another text thread from Roberts, which were sent at 11:47 a.m. that same day.

The court was also shown an image of the mapping of logged calls from phones identified as belonging to Roberts, Gray, and Roberts' former co-defendant Mario Morrison between 1:24 p.m. and 7:43 p.m. on January 29, 2017, prior to Gray's disappearance.

Gray, a grade 10 student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was found dead in Irwin in the parish on February 1, 2017, with multiple stab wounds.

Three days prior, on January 29, she was last seen alive in Montego Bay while on her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate.

The trial continues later today.

- Christopher Thomas

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