Warrants issued for absentee witnesses in Sylvan Reid trial

WESTERN BUREAU: THE ST James Circuit Court has issued warrants for several prosecution witnesses in the case against Councillor Sylvan Reid, who is charged with causing death by dangerous driving, after they failed to appear before the court yesterday.

Presiding High Court Justice Vivienne Harris made the order for the warrants after it was revealed that the witnesses had not turned up for the start of Reid’s trial, despite having previously been served with subpoenas to present themselves at court.

“I am going to order a warrant of first instance to bring them [witnesses] here on the next date, because they have been served with subpoenas to come to court for trial and they have disobeyed the subpoenas,” said Justice Harris. “If the witnesses do not come to court on the next trial date, the matter will be taken off the list one way or another.”

Reid, who is represented by attorneys K.D. Knight, Roy Fairclough and Tamika Spencer, had his bail extended until Monday, April 3.

Reid is charged in connection with the accident that claimed the life of Jevaughn Whitmore, the son of national football coach and former Reggae Boyz star Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore, on November 9, 2013.

The allegations are that the 14-year-old Whitmore, who was a student at Cornwall College and a member of the Montego Bay United Football Club, was pushing his bicycle in the vicinity of the Retirement and Tucker intersection in St James, when he was hit by a Mitsubishi Pajero sport utility vehicle that was subsequently identified as belonging to Reid.

Persons who reportedly witnessed the incident told police investigators that Reid, who is the councillor for the Salt Spring division in the St James Municipal Corporation, was one of two persons who alighted from the vehicle and left the scene after the accident.