Nurse gets new date in vehicular manslaughter case

WESTERN BUREAU: DANA MINTO, the nurse charged with causing death by dangerous driving following a 2017 accident which claimed two lives, is scheduled to undergo her longawaited committal hearing on May 2, after the hearing was postponed for a fifth time yesterday.

Minto was given the new court date and had her bail extended after it was revealed in the St James Parish Court that the outstanding accident reconstruction data were not yet available.

Attorney-at-law Deandra Phillips, who briefly represented Minto on behalf of the accused woman’s lawyer Trevor Ho Lyn, told presiding judge Kacia Grant that the defence is yet to receive outstanding scene-ofcrime CDs from the police’s Accident Investigation and Reconstruction Unit (AIRU).

“I was served with a letter [from the AIRU] and was told that the CDs with the photographs will be available tomorrow, Tuesday, April 2,” said Phillips.

The case was subsequently set for mention on May 2.

Minto was arrested and charged following an incident on November 13, 2017, when the Toyota Ipsum vehicle she was driving struck four persons along Felicity Road in Glendevon, St James. She was allegedly trying to overtake another vehicle when the mishap took place.

Fifteen-year-old Shantae Rose, a grade 10 student of Green Pond High School in the parish, and 52-year-old Franklin Hylton died on the spot, while Rose’s mother and sister were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries. Minto allegedly jumped from the vehicle and fled the scene, but later turned herself over to the authorities.