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Jamaican Police Officer Jailed For Life

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday, January 10, 2020 (CMC) – A police officer has been jailed for life, after he was found guilty of shooting a man to death, in central Kingston on October 9, 2009.

Gareth Davis, who was one of two police constables charged with shooting Omar Marshall, will become eligible for parole, after serving 15 years in Jail.

High Court Judge, Justice Georgianna Fraser, imposed a sentence of six years and 10 months on Christobel Smith. Both police officers were members of the now-disbanded Mobile Reserve Division.

Davis was convicted of murder, while Smith was found guilty of manslaughter, by a seven-member jury in the Gun Court.

The Court heard that Marshall was shot nine times in his yard, on October 9, 2009, and while Gun Court cases are closed to the public, the prosecution led evidence showing that the two police officers were part of a police team that went to the premises, under the supervision of a superintendent.

Eyewitnesses reportedly testified that Marshall was urinating at the fence in his front yard, when four cops, including Smith and Davis, held him and dragged him to the back of the premises, where he was shot by the convicted policemen.

But the policemen claimed, in their defence, that they were on patrol in the area when they saw Marshall – who they did not know before – running from the roadway to his premises. They said they chased him to the back of the premises, where he turned to face them with a firearm in his hand. The officers said they fired their guns in self-defence.

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