Kevin Smith caused fatal crash to commit suicide, coroner's inquest rules

A coroner's inquest has cleared the cops who were transporting controversial pastor Kevin Smith, with the judge ruling that the clergyman caused the accident in a bid to commit suicide.

Judge Carol Hughes handed down her decision today in the Coroner's Court in St Catherine.

Smith, 39, died from crash-related injuries in 2021 while being transported by the police from Montego Bay, St James to Kingston.

Twenty-six-year-old Constable Orlando Irons, of the Fugitive Apprehension Team, also died in the crash.

The crash occurred on the Linstead Bypass in St Catherine.

Smith was being escorted from St James to Kingston to be charged with murder and other offences. 

Days prior, the authorities had stormed the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries compound in St James, where Smith was presiding over a bloody and fatal ritual.

The Coroner's Inquest was held to probe the circumstances which led to the death of Smith and Irons in the crash.

In her ruling, Hughes ruled that the collision did not occur because of excess speed and she found that the cops who were placed before the inquest to be credible witnesses.

It was held that they were not negligent in carrying out their duties, according to attorney-at-law John Jacobs, who represented the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the two officers.

According to Jacobs, the judge found that, based on the evidence, Smith assaulted the cops who were transporting him, stating that his actions were unlawful and dangerous and caused the death of Irons.

“On the balance of probabilities, this was not death by motor vehicle accident, Kevin Smith died by suicide.

"The judge found that Smith's unlawful acts [were] responsible for the death of Irons."

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