WESTMORELAND, Jamaica —The defence for three cops charged in the fatal beating of Mario Deane while in police custody has rested their case.
The development follows an unsworn statement provided by the three accused on Thursday, Corporal Elaine Stewart and District Constables Marlon Grant and Juliana Clevon, who all rejected claims made by a former inmate who gave a chilling account of Dean’s beating and the reaction of the cops on April 22.
The three cops are all charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office.
On Friday, the defence team did not provide any further evidence in support of their defence in the Westmoreland Circuit Court.
“My Lord, the prosecution, the foreman and members of the jury, at this time, the defence will close its case… for Ms Elaine Stewart, the case for Mr Marlon Grant,” stated the lawyer representing Stewart and Grant, Martyn Thomas.
Thomas’s colleague, Dalton Reid, who is representing Clevon, said the same goes for him and his client.
The case was adjourned until May 12.
The allegations in the case are that Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody, where he was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014. He sustained severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.
It is alleged that the three cops were on duty at the police station when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Stewart, who has an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.
— Anthony Lewis