Cop on life sentence gets bail

Two policemen, who were convicted for the 2009 killing of a Central Kingston man, will get to spend Christmas with their families after they were granted bail yesterday by the Court of Appeal.

Constables Gareth Davis and Christobel Smith, who were attached to the now disbanded Mobile Reserve Unit, were convicted in November 2019 for the killing of Omar Marshall. The court heard that the deceased was shot nine times.

On January 7 this year, Davis, who was found guilty of murder, was sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole after 15 years, while Smith, who was convicted of manslaughter, was sentenced to a term of six years and 10 months.

For their appeal, Smith is being represented by Queen's Counsel Caroline Reid-Cameron while Davis is being represented by Queen's Counsel Peter Champagnie and Kemar Robinson.

The lawyers argued yesterday that the trial judge failed to properly direct the jury on the issue of self-defence concerning the lawmen.

The policemen, at their trial, had argued that the deceased had pulled a firearm on them and, they shot the deceased in self-defence. Prosecution witnesses, however, had testified that the police shot Blake in cold blood. President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Brooks, ordered that the men be offered bail in the sum of $1 million each, with stringent reporting conditions pending the hearing of the substantive appeal.