Judge’s jury instructions in Shineka Gray trial delayed to feed defendant
THE ONGOING i nstructions from the judge to the jury in the trial of Gregory Roberts for the 2017 murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Shineka Gray briefly got stonewalled on Monday after the St James Circuit Court was told that the defendant had not got his lunch.
Presiding judge High Court Justice Bertram Morrison was fuming as he demanded to know from the court officer why Roberts had not got his meal during the court’s nearly 90-minute lunch break.
“This is a comment I have had to make on at least three occasions. We can’t treat him like that. He is a human being,” Morrison angrily told the court.
“Did his food arrive on time?” he asked the court officer.
“My lord, checks were made at the restaurant at the Freeport facility [where Roberts has been held in custody], and I was told they came up short. I am not sure why, but I have made checks,” the officer admitted.
“I am going to rise. This cannot be ... and it means that there is going to be a further delay in my summation. He has to be fed, and as soon as he feels comfortable enough to come back into court, you let me know,” Morrison ordered before pausing court proceedings to facilitate Roberts getting his meal.
The issue of Roberts getting fed in a timely manner had come up at previous points in the trial, which began on November 23, 2023, when he informed the court that he had not got a chance to have his meals ahead of his scheduled appearances.
Earlier on Monday, before the delay, and again in the afternoon when court eventually resumed shortly before 3 p.m., Morrison gave further i nstructions to the jury as to how they should examine the evidence that had been presented so far in making their eventual deliberations to arrive at a proper verdict.
The judge began giving his instructions on Friday, January 19, after the prosecution and the defence finished calling their respective witnesses in the trial.
During Monday’s instructions, Morrison advised the jury that they should treat with caution the evidence that had been given for the prosecution’s case by Mario Morrison, Roberts’ former co-defendant in Gray’s murder, as it was likely that that evidence may have been serving the witness’ own purposes.
“Let me tell you how you are going to treat Mario Morrison. You are going to have to treat his evidence with caution because he might have an interest to serve. You are going to have to look for corroboration,” said Justice Morrison.
“You will have to approach Mario Morrison’s evidence with the utmost caution ... . Take care when you consider his evidence. You should be careful of the fact that he has an interest of his own to serve,” the judge added.
A SACRIFICE
Mario Morrison, who testified on November 30, 2023, told the court at that time that he had video-recorded Roberts stabbing the schoolgirl to death using Roberts’ phone, upon Roberts’ instruction. During that testimony, he said that Roberts asked him to record the incident because Roberts was going to make a “sacrifice”, a word that has seen repeated use throughout the trial.
However, Roberts’ defence team, consisting of attorneys Leroy Equiano and Chumu Parris, sought to discredit Morrison as a witness, pointing to apparent discrepancies between his evidence-in-chief and his statement to the police at the time of his arrest.
The judge’s instructions to the jury will continue on Tuesday morning and will include an overview of the evidence given by police witnesses and other expert testimony during the trial.
The body of Shineka Gray, a student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was found with multiple stab wounds in the Irwin, St James, community on February 1, 2017, three days after she was last seen alive in Montego Bay while returning from the funeral of a schoolmate.