Bank robbery re-trial pushes limits of jury

(CNS): Efforts to empanel twelve men and women to try the four men accused of a daylight robbery at Cayman National Bank failed Monday when the entire jury pool was exhausted and only eleven members had been sworn in. With all retail bank workers excused and many members of the jury having relatives working at CNB or connections with other witnesses, the police or one of the four defendants picking a dozen members of the public to serve who have no real or perceived prejudice proved challenging.

The selection process began at around 11am Monday, ahead of the trial which is scheduled to last as long as four weeks. However, at 4:45pm the last member of the jury pool was called and challenged, leaving an empty seat. The judge said that enquiries would be made about calling people expected to be in the next jury session to see if the twelfth member could be found before the crown opens its case for the second time against David Tamasa, Rennie Cole, George Mignott & Andre Burton.

For the high-profile case, more than 100 members of the jury pool called Monday and questioned by the judge but most were either challenged or excused, leaving the panel one person short after a full day’s selection process.

The four men were convicted for the armed robbery in May 2013, almost a year after the bank heist at the Buckingham Square branch in June 2012. The verdicts were quashed, however, by the Court of Appeal this summer and a new trial ordered.

The crown’s case against all four men for stealing half a million dollars in the daring daylight heist depends very heavily on the evidence of Marlon Dillon, another member of the gang who was recently released from jail having served almost three years in solitary confinement.

Dillon was labelled a ‘supergrass ‘ by his own attorney after he testified against the men he claims were his accomplices in the previous trial and in a second related robbery case. He also gave evidence in a murder trial last year in which Brian Borden was convicted of killing Mackford Bush in 20011.

Although Dillon, who was caught red-handed, had pleaded guilty to his part in the CNB robbery, he was released from jail in November last year after a judge found exceptional circumstances in his case. He handed him just three years because of the significant risk to his own life as a result of giving evidence in the three key trials.