(Jamaica Observer) Eight of the 26 men on trial for alleged Klansman gang crimes may have mistakenly killed and set a St Catherine couple on fire in 2017 while looking for a rival gangster by the name of “Bobo Sparks”, but on Wednesday Chief Justice Bryan Sykes declared that it does not absolve them from punishment.
The Crown, in opening its case on September 20 last year, said that incident — which is reflected in counts seven and eight on the 25-count indictment — was part of the crimes committed between 2015 and 2019 that are attributable to the gang. This act was said to be carried out by the accused Andre “Blackman” Bryan, the alleged gang leader, and co-accused Fabian Johnson, Dylon McLean, Brian Morris, Michael Whitely, Tareek James, and Jahzeel Blake.
Witness Number One — an ex-gang member-turned-Crown-witness — told the court that himself and those men as well as the accused, Joseph McDermott, and another man known as Frazzle (Damian Doyle, now deceased), were together in one of the two groups that were part of the attack. He also gave evidence as to the lighting at the meeting and how long he saw the accused he had named that night.
Bryan and Walker died “huddled together” after they were peppered with bullets and their wooden dwelling burnt to rubble by the thugs.
On Wednesday, the chief justice, who is at the point in the trial where he is delivering verdicts, said, “the interesting thing here is that we don’t know whether this was Bobo Sparks but at the very least, if he was not, it would mean that Witness Number One and his band went to the wrong place, but it doesn’t exonerate them… it does not negate liability. It is not an exonerating feature or circumstance.”
“So in the end, it really doesn’t matter what names they have, the question is ‘did they go over to the place and do what they intended which was to kill, maim, and burn?’ “ he stated.
Witness Number One, who said the macabre planning meeting took place on a night in the work week, said Andre Bryan said he was going to ‘shell dung Fisheries’ and that they were ‘going to look for Bobo Sparks’. He said that night there were guns in the possession of the men, a crate full of bottle bombs, and that he was the designated carrier.
“It is clear that what Witness Number One is saying is that the purpose of this operation was to rid themselves of Bobo Sparks and so, what you have are persons gathered for the purpose of committing a serious offensive. In this case it’s murder and the bottle bombs serve to burn whatever it is they felt needed burning. So what this means is that even before they left to go over to Fisheries, is that this would demonstrate the existence of a criminal organisation and having regard to what he said he saw — which is bottle bombs — it is extremely unlikely that any of those gathered were unaware of the purpose for which they were gathered. The evidence indicated that Mr Bryan was the prime mover in this elimination exercise,” the trial judge stated.
In noting that the evidence of Witness Number One aligned with that of a community member who gave testimony during the trial, he said, “according to the resident, she was in bed around 3:30 am when she heard the community dogs begin to bark, and then heard a gate kicked off. She said she knew it was Jermaine Bryan’s gate since he was the only one apart from her that had a metal gate in the lane. She said she then heard a door kicked off. Witness Number One had made mention of the same details. She said she then heard gunshots. Witness Number One had said Tareek James and himself had kicked off the gate and that shots were fired by Andre Bryan and James,” the trial judge recounted.
