‘Wha mi do?’
Mother of Shineka Gray murder accused recalls son’s arrest
GREGORY ROBERTS, the man on trial for the 2017 murder of schoolgirl Shineka Gray, blinked multiple times in the prisoner’s dock yesterday as he watched his mother recounting for the St James Circuit Court how he was arrested before her eyes on February 3, 2017.
The mother, who was the third witness to be called by Roberts’ defence team, testified via the Zoom online platform about how, a day prior to his arrest, her son came from Montego Bay to visit their St Thomas home after she had previously called asking for him to come and help with a sick relative.
“I called him by phone, I had his number and I called him. I told him his brother was sick, [and]
I asked him to come and help,” the mother recounted in response to questions from defence lawyer Leroy Equiano. “I called the next day and told him he must come and help with his brother, and that I cannot manage.”
“Did he come?” Equiano asked.
“It took about two to three days’ time before he came … he came up in the night, and he came up by his brother’s house and there ‘til the next morning, and Greg said to carry him to the doctor. We went to the Princess Margaret Hospital, and then we left there and sat in the van, and Greg came in the van, and we just see a man and a woman come there and they opened the door,” the witness recounted.
At that moment, the mother recalled, things took a bewildering turn when one of the strangers attempted to handcuff Roberts.
“The woman took my bag, and then the man took out a handcuff and put it on Greg’s hand. Him say, ‘Wha mi do? Wha mi do?’” the mother explained.
“What happened after that?” Equiano inquired.
“They put him in a car,” the mother answered.
“This man and woman, did you know who they were?” Equiano asked next. “No,” the witness answered.
“Did you ever find out if they were police?” Equiano queried.
“Is after, when they put the handcuff on him. They drove with him to take him to the Morant Bay [Police] Station because they got a call from the Montego Bay police,” the witness replied.
“Do you know how long Gregory was in Montego Bay for?” Equiano wanted to know.
“I’m not certain of the years, but he was there a long time,” the mother said.
However, during cross-examination, lead prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby pointed out that the witness never mentioned in her statement to the police about her previous attempts to contact Roberts.
“How long the brother did sick?” asked Martin-Swaby.
“About one month,” the mother answered.
“If you say the brother was sick about a month, he was sick from about January [2017]?”Martin-Swaby queried. “Yes,” the mother replied.
“So, after you were calling Gregory several times, the first time him come is February 2, the Thursday night?” Martin-Swaby pressed.
“Yes,” the mother admitted.
“I put it to you that nowhere i n your statement did you say that you called Gregory and told him to come to St Thomas because his brother was sick. There is nothing in the statement that you called your ‘wash-belly’ (last child) and told him to come to St Thomas because his brother was sick,” Martin-Swaby challenged, moments after showing the witness an electronic copy of the statement she had submitted to the police.
“That was not in this one,” the witness replied.
Under re-examination by Equiano, the witness admitted that she could not recall how many statements she gave to the police concerning her son.
Meanwhile, presiding High Court Justice Bertram Morrison rejected an application by Equiano to recall a digital forensic officer who had previously testified for the prosecution. Equiano had made the application seeking to call that witness on behalf of the defence.
The trial continues on Wednesday morning, when the defence will seek to call another witness in support of Roberts.
Gray, who was a grade-10 student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in Irwin, St James, on February 1, 2017. She was last seen alive on her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate on January 29, 2017.