Fields guilty of manslaughter; bail revoked

With a tear running down the left side of his face manslayer James Ricardo Alexander Fields handed over his belongings to his grandfather and affectionately touched his head before he was escorted out of the No. 3 Supreme Court by a prison officer.

Fields, who was recorded as having no fixed place of abode when he was first charged, but formerly lived on Bank Hall Main Road, St Michael had been on bail for the past “three or four years” on the charge that he murdered Michael Dear on February 18, 2010 at Storey Gap, Codrington, St Michael.

Dear died after being shot.

Today, 12 jurors who heard the evidence in the case against him found that he was not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. That verdict, which took them just over two hours to reach, was unanimous.

Prosecutors Senior Crown Counsel Neville Watson and Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett then submitted that Fields’ bail be revoked and he be remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds.

But his attorney-at-law Verla De Peiza told Justice Carlisle Greaves her client, who had already spent some six years on remand in connection with the charge, had been on bail for the past few years. She asked that his bail continue, pending sentencing, even if the conditions are changed.

Justice Greaves denied the application and remanded the convicted Fields to the St Philip institution until sentencing day on April 24.

In the meantime a pre-sentencing report has been requested as well as an official record from the prison on the time he had spent on remand. An officer from the Royal Barbados Police Force Records Department is also expected to find out whether Fields has previous convictions.