Black Immigrant Daily News
A bench warrant was issued on Friday for a man after he absconded bail ahead of the start of his murder trial relative to the death of 56-year-old attorney and university lecturer, Clover Graham, in 2012.
Quron Patterson, alias ‘Q’, a resident of Gordon Pen in Spanish Town, St Catherine, last appeared in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on Thursday for a case management conference.
His bail was extended until Friday for the start of the long-awaited trial, but Patterson failed to show for the start of the court proceedings.
His attorney, Zara Lewis, advised the court that she had failed to make contact with her client or any of his relatives.
High Court Judge, Justice Leighton Pusey, subsequently issued the bench warrant for Patterson’s arrest.
A decision is to be made on Monday by the said judge on whether to begin the trial in Patterson’s absence.
At the time of her killing in August 2012, Graham was a lecturer at the University of Technology (UTech) Jamaica and the Norman Manley Law School.
She was also employed to the Legal Aid Clinic in Kingston.
The crown is alleging that Graham was taken from her home and murdered.
Her body was found with the throat slashed in bushes at Caymanas Estate, St Catherine on August 19, 2012, hours after she was reported missing by her family members.
Two months later, Patterson, along with Simeon Lewis and Shannon Campbell, were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to murder in relation to Graham’s death.
Lewis and Campbell are to testify against Patterson after having pleaded guilty and been sentenced for their roles in the commission of the crime.
Friday’s no-show in court was the second time recently that an accused in a high-profile murder case has abscond bail ahead of their scheduled trial in the Home Circuit Court.
Clover Graham
On November 2, 2022, Simeon Sutherland, the man charged in connection with the murder of then People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for East Portland, Dr Lynvale Bloomfield, absconded bail.
He was scheduled to stand trial in the Home Circuit Court for the politician’s 2019 stabbing death at his home in Passley Gardens, Portland.
However, when his name was called at least three times to come inside the courtroom in downtown Kingston, Sutherland was nowhere to be found.
The court was told that before the start of session, the accused and his parents were at the office of his lawyer, Peter Champagnie.
Sutherland’s mother reportedly claimed that her son was dropped off at the entrance to the Supreme Court building, but said she noticed that he did not go towards the building.
Instead, the accused man reportedly walked away and did not stop, even while his parents reportedly attempted to drive him down.
Sutherland’s mother was ordered by High Court Judge, Justice Leighton Pusey, to be taken into custody to pay her son’s bail bond of $800,000.
She eventually paid the sum and was released from custody.
A bench warrant was also issued by the judge for Sutherland’s arrest, but the accused remains on the run.
Bloomfield was found dead with multiple stab wounds at his home on the morning of February 2, 2019.
Sutherland was arrested by investigators from the Major Investigative Division (MID) days later, but after denying knowledge of the murder, was initially released by the police.
He was re-arrested shortly after evidence reportedly linked him to the scene of the crime.
Meanwhile, Justice Pusey, who was down to preside over both trials where Patterson and Sutherland absconded bail, has somewhat given his support for an aspect of the new Bail Act, which proposes electronic monitoring for persons on bail.
“Very interestingly, there is scope for two things which the powers that be have not yet put in place in relation to the Bail Act, which is that there is actually provision for electronic monitoring, which we never had,” Pusey was quoted by the media as having said in court on Friday.
If the provision is passed into law, it will grant presiding judges in Jamaica the authority to prescribe whether a defendant who is granted bail should wear an electronic tracking device or ankle bracelet.
Section 14 of the Bill says that a person who absconds while on bail faces up to five years in prison for the offence if convicted in a parish court, and up to seven years if the conviction is in a Circuit Court.
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