Deported ex-cop on attempted murder rap remanded

A FORMER member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, who had fled to the United States and was deported, was remanded Monday on a charge of attempted murder after his trial failed to get under way in the Home Circuit Court.

The accused, Mwando Pryce, had been on the run for a decade after he and other lawmen reportedly attempted to kill a civilian in a dispute over the spoils from a robbery.

Pryce was deported in March 2019 but was rearrested in April after he was mysteriously released. He was subsequently charged with attempted murder.

The accused, who has been in custody since his arrest, appeared in court on Monday before Justice Georgiana Fraser, but, instead of having his trial commenced, was given a new date for a plea and case-management hearing on July 28.

Attorney-at-law Kemar Robinson, who is representing the accused, told The Gleaner that the matter was stalled because of “case-management issues” that need to be settled but that a new trial date will be set on the date of the case-management hearing in July.

According to allegations in 2009, Pryce, who was then a constable, carried out a robbery at a house in Stony Hill, St Andrew, along with other policemen and civilians.

Following the robbery, it is alleged that a dispute developed over how the funds should be shared and a civilian was shot nine times and dumped in a gully off Waltham Park Road in St Andrew.

The injured man, however, managed to survive, and Pryce and two of his colleagues were reportedly pointed out in an identification parade.

But the two policemen, who were charged with attempted murder and wounding with intent, were freed in December 2017 after the Director of Public Prosecutions entered a nolle prosequi.