Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

One of the oldest cases on the Home Circuit Court list was disposed of Wednesday when two men were tried and convicted of the April 2000 murder of Detective Sergeant Maurice Shirley.

He was was gunned down in a bar at Strathmore Gardens in Spanish Town, St Catherine, and his firearm stolen.

A jury, after retiring for more than an hour, found 28-year-old Wayne Morris, also called 'Rape', and 25-year-old Dean Reid, also called 'Sampoochie', both labourers of March Pen, St Catherine, guilty of the charge.

Sentencing put off

Justice Lloyd Hibbert has put off sentencing until February 22. The trial lasted for two weeks.

The Crown, represented by Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn and Melissa Simms, Crown counsel, led evidence that Shirley was shot dead in the bar on April 14, 2000, and his firearm stolen. The men gave cautioned statements admitting that they had been involved in the murder.

The police found the men in a house in Spring Gardens, Trelawny, on May 2, 2000. Two firearms were found in the house. Ballistics tests conducted on the firearms revealed that one of the guns belonged to Shirley and the other gun was the murder weapon.

Cautioned statements

Two cautioned statements given by the men, outlining their role in the murder, were tendered in evidence.

The men, in their defence, denied being involved in the murder.

The Crown had to rely on Section 31 D of the Evidence (Amendment) Act to prove its case because four of the witnesses had died and a bartender who was a witness to the murder went to live abroad a few weeks after the incident out of fear for her life.

The act, which makes provisions for the statements of witnesses to be tendered in evidence if they have died or are not available at the trial, has been the subject of much criticism lately. The criticisms stem from a policeman's confession in court this month that he fabricated evidence in a murder case by writing a statement purporting that it was given by a witness.

Llewellyn told The Gleaner on Wednesday that all the safeguards, including the rights of the accused as enshrined in the Constitution, were adhered to under the act to have the statements of the witnesses admitted in evidence.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com