Men guilty of manslaughter; sentence pending

A jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter and not murder as the trial against Jaleel Kadeem Callender and Jalen Trimal Jones-Cox ended on Friday evening.

Callender, 30, of Block 2D Barbarees Gardens, Barbarees Hill, St Michael and Jones-Cox, 23, of Kings Gap, Eagle Hall, of the same parish, had both denied murdering Darrell Harris on January 15, 2019.

It took the 12-member jury in Supreme Court No. 3, two and a half hours of deliberation to return the verdict.

Justice Carlisle Greaves ordered a pre-sentence report and the antecedents of the convicted men, which are to be produced by January 24, 2025 and February 10, 2025 respectively.

Callender and Jones-Cox were remanded to Dodds Prison pending sentencing scheduled for February 14, 2025.

Principal State Counsel Neville Watson and State Counsel Omar Small prosecuted the matter. King’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and attorney Summer Hassell represented Callender, while King’s Counsel Michael Lashley represented Jones-Cox.

Harris died of multiple gunshot wounds outside his Barbarees Hill home.

In his statement to police, Jones-Cox confessed to the shooting, saying he did it in self-defence following an earlier incident where Harris pointed a gun at him and Callender. In his unsworn statement from the dock, however, he denied killing Harris, saying he had been threatened and beaten by police to admit to the offence.

Callender denied being part of any plot to kill Harris, telling the court that a friend had said Harris was threatening him and asked for a firearm. “I just give he and I had nothing else to do with that,” Callender said in his unsworn statement.