Convict’s application for leave to appeal adjourned until March

As convicted murderer Haniyfa Reza White was sentenced a few doors away in a criminal court, her application for leave to appeal was adjourned in the Court of Appeal until March next year.

White, who is represented by attorney Lalu Hanuman, is applying for leave to appeal the Caribbean Court of Justice on the Court of Appeal’s May 13, ruling to dismiss an application to stay her criminal proceedings in the No. 5 Supreme Court.

Pointing to several issues with the application, Chief Justice The Most Honourable Leslie Haynes stated that the court was willing to grant the applicant permission to “put its house in order” to ensure a proper record of the various filings in the matter and to amend the application.

Principal State Counsel Jared Richards appeared for the State.

Written submissions are to be filed by the applicant by February 13, 2026 and by the respondent by February 27.

The matter was adjourned until March 19. White of Sion Hill, St James, and formerly of Six Men’s, St Peter was convicted by a 12-member jury of murdering Julene Bryan on May 14, 2007.

After Hanuman filed a constitutional motion arguing that it would be “impossible” to have a fair trial due to the delay in the matter, Justice Corlita Babb-Schaefer in May, recommended that the case be thrown out after finding that the State had breached White’s right to a fair trial in a reasonable time.

Hanuman then filed an urgent application in the Court of Appeal challenging Justice Pamela Beckles’s decision to proceed with the trial. However, later that month, the appellate court, comprising Chief Justice Haynes and Justices of Appeal Francis Belle and Jacqueline Cornelius-Thorne, rejected the bid, with the chief justice stating that there was no conflict between the two judges’ decisions.