Mario Deane’s mom leads four-year fight for justice
Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis is calling for the Freedom Monument, which is at the rear of the Montego Bay Cultural Centre (formerly Civic Centre) in Sam Sharpe Square, to be relocated to somewhere more accessible to the people.
“I would like to see this monument place in a conspicuous position, in front of the Civic Centre, where the citizens of Montego Bay will have the opportunity to stop by and look at some of the names [of people] who suffered for us to be enjoying the freedom we [are] now enjoying,”Davis said.
The mayor argued that the Freedom Monument, which is 10 feet tall, is wrongly placed.
“I have been here for quite a long time and I only visited around there twice, so those of you who have never experienced it, you have never gone around there. I am sure that if you should go around there, you will concur with me that it is wrongly placed,” he lamented.
Davis, who is also the chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation, recalled a conversation he had about the current location of the markets, and said, “You think it is a mistake that our markets are placed where they are placed? They are placed at the back, on backstreets and stuff like that. It’s time for our people to be on the front page, and I am calling on all of us to lead this charge to move that monument.
“I am saying to us as citizens of Montego Bay, I am prepared to lead that charge and I will be entering into discussion with the relevant persons and agencies to have that monument put at its rightful place,” Davis said.
F“They call him Funny Man and another name, but him don’t care,” he said. “Call him what you want, he does not care what you want to say about him.”
Ellis’ nephew, Orlando Palmer, confirmed that the deceased had no children or a woman in his life, and said the nickname came from his uncle’s open declaration that he had no interest in the opposite sex.
“He said it, but he explained to me that what he means is that him no need no woman who cannot help him. He wants someone progressive, someone in a better position than he is,” said Palmer. our years have passed since the controversial death of Mario Deane on Jamaica’s Independence Day in 2014.
He was allegedly beaten while in police custody, and his mother, Mercia Fraser, remains determined to get justice for her son against all odds.
“I’m holding on, although I’m a little gloomy. My faith keeps me going, because I know there is one God, and the fight is still on,” said an emotional Fraser in a telephone interview on Friday, August 3, exactly four years after Deane, a construction worker, was reportedly beaten by other inmates while he was in custody at the Barnett Street police lock-up in Montego Bay.
Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff. He succumb to his injuries three days later.
“I am going to stand up for what is right, because this is about my child.”
Following Deane’s death, three inmates – Marvin Orr, Adrian Morgan and Damion Cargill – were arrested and charged with murder. Orr and Morgan will make their next appearance in the St James Circuit Court on September 17, while Cargill was deemed unfit to plea and discharged into his family’s custody due to being mentally ill.
Three police personnel – Corporal Elaine Stewart and district constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant – were charged with manslaughter, misconduct in a public office, and perverting the course of justice in relation to Deane’s death.
They are to stand trial in the St James Circuit Court on September 18.
“This case still has a big hold on our family, but we have to try to live and to move on. Sometimes it looks hopeless, as though the matter is not going anywhere, but I still persevere,” Fraser said.