Shineka Gray murder accused for plea and case management hearing

The two men charged with the murder of Green Pond High School student, 15-year-old Shineka Gray – Gregory Roberts and Mario Morrison - will on Monday have the opportunity to enter fresh pleas to their murder charges. The cases against them were set for a plea and case management hearing when the men were last before the St James Circuit Court earlier this month. If the defendants enter pleas of not guilty, the case management hearing will be held. This would allow the prosecution and the lawyers representing the accused men to reach agreement on the portions of evidence that will be deliberated on during the upcoming trial. Roberts and Morrison were arrested and charged after Gray’s body was found in bushes in Irwin, St James, with multiple stab wounds on February 1, 2017. She was found three days after she was reported missing. Gray was last seen alive in Montego Bay after attending the funeral of a schoolmate.

Annotto Bay residents demand release of men detained in child's murder

Residents of the St Mary town of Annotto Bay staged a fiery protest on Thursday morning as they demanded the release of two men taken into custody for last month's murder of three-year-old Kalecia Matthews. Some of the residents used their bodies and debris to block the main road, which impeded traffic flow through the town. The police eventually cleared the roadway and brought calm to the area. However, the residents continue to claim that the men, who were detained three days ago, were innocent. Loop News understands that one of the men arrested is a security guard. His relatives are contending that he was asleep at the time of the killing and knew nothing of the child's tragic demise. "The killer a walk up and down Annotto Bay and all bout and them nah do a thing to capture him. How much people get kill a Annotto Bay and di police dem neva mek no arrest yet," one resident told Loop News. A police source would only disclose that investigations are ongoing at this time, and the men are being questioned. Kalecia Matthews was allegedly shot and killed by a lone gunman, while she walked with her stepfather on Wednesday night, February 14 in an area known as Cane Lane in Annotto Bay. The girl was the fourth person killed in Annotto Bay since the start of the year. In recent times, there has been concern about the escalation of crime in the town and the increase in murders across the parish. The parish has recorded 11 murders since the start of the year.

Jamaican identified among six killed in Florida bridge collapse

A Jamaican man was identified among the six victims who were crushed to death when a 950-ton pedestrian bridge at Florida International University (FIU) collapsed on Thursday. He is Navara Brown, a 37-year-old employee of a company that provides products to strengthen bridges, a spokesman told media houses in Florida late Friday. A Jamaican relative posted on Facebook that the man who was killed was from Mocho, Clarendon, Jamaica. “Varo you really gone??? S.I.P mi cuz gone way too soon,” Appleonia Brown, the distraught family member wrote. Another victim identified among the six killed is a FIU student, Alexa Duran. Authorities who have been working non-stop to reach and recover victims said that the cables suspending the pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing the six people only days after it was installation. The bridge was being celebrated as a technological innovation. The $14.2 million bridge crossed over a busy seven-lane road that divided the Florida International University campus from the city of Sweetwater. Authorities said Friday that the cables suspending a pedestrian bridge were being tightened after a "stress test" when the 950-ton concrete span collapsed over traffic, killing at least six people only days after its installation was celebrated as a technological innovation. As state and federal investigators worked to determine why the five-day-old span failed, Florida politicians pointed to the stress test and loosened cables as possible factors, and a police chief asked everyone not to jump to conclusions. "This is a tragedy that we don't want to re-occur anywhere in the United States," said Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade police. "We just want to find out what caused this collapse to occur and people to die."