Ebanks acquitted over gun, real owner went free
(CNS): It took a jury just over two hours on Friday to find Jay Calvert Ebanks (23) not guilty of possessing a loaded unlicensed .38 Smith & Wesson revolver that was found in a toilet cistern at his home. Ebanks had indicated to police when first arrested that he would take responsibility for it but during the trial the jury heard that the weapon belonged to another man whom the authorities had deported before DNA test results were returned that linked him to the weapon.
When his home in Savannah was raided by police, Ebanks was there with his mother, Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Jeanine Lewis, as well as his younger brother, his girlfriend and a man called Antonio Bullard, an illegally landed Jamaican national.
After the handgun was found in the toilet off Lewis’ bedroom the police arrest all five occupants of the house. During his interview Ebanks said the gun had something to do with Bullard and himself but nothing to do with anyone else. Bullard was charged with illegal landing and deported before DNA results from the gun were completed, which the judge described as an “extraordinary error” by the local authorities as the tests showed only Bullard’s DNA was on the weapon.
When he gave evidence in court, Ebanks said that he had learned of the gun the morning of the raid and had accepted responsibility for it because he wanted the police to release his mother, brother and girlfriend. Given that the gun had been hidden by Bullard in his mother’s bathroom, Ebanks, who made it very clear that he had a very good relationship with her, was desperate to ensure she would not be in trouble.
Although he was aware the gun was Bullard’s, he said that during his police interview he had only hinted at that to the police as he was afraid to give Bullard away, but he was trying to point the police in the right direction. During the bust another 10 rounds of .40 ammunition were also found in Ebanks’ bedroom, along with a quantity of ganja, and he told the court he wanted to “take the rap” for everything to get his family and girlfriend free.
However, even though police had taken DNA samples from all of the occupants at the house when the gun was found, in what appears to have been a lack of communication between departments, immigration deported Bullard after he was convicted in Summary Court for being in Cayman illegally just a few weeks after the raid.
“I think everybody would have to agree that this was an extraordinary error,” Justice Charles Quin told the jury, as he summed up the case at the end of the trial. “It was a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.”
The jury did not accept that Ebanks also had control of the revolver and found him not guilty. He has already pleaded guilty to possessing the ammunition, which he claims to have found while out walking his dog, and he remains on remand at HMP Northward. He is expected to be sentenced in connection with that conviction in September.
Meanwhile, his mother is also facing charges in Summary Court and has been on required leave from her senior immigration job since the arrest. She faces allegations of permitting a premises to be used for consumption of a controlled drug and knowingly assisting a person to land in the Cayman Islands in connection with Bullard.
She has pleaded not guilty to both charges and is expected to be tried in November.
this sounds more like a cover-up than a scr w-up. jus saying
They let an international narcotics dealer free, more than likely because he knew too much about more important people in Cayman. Put him on trial and he spills the beans! Send home and he send more drugs over but some are free this time. It amazes me that people cannot read between the lines and see what is happening here in Cayman. Drugs come through Cayman and go to the US and Europe! The only way this is possible is by having some very “important” people involved.
Admits to having knowledge of the firearm but yet is still acquitted…Hmmmm…wonder if the crown will appeal??…Think they should…Two extraordinary errors I might add!!
Police are probably thinking they might have found the second gun if it had occurred to them to check the rest of the toilets.
If someone could write a book on all what has happened in the Cayman Islands for the past 20 years , what a book that would be .
‘extraordinary error’. Yeah sure.
What strikes me as extremely strange was Bullard’s rapid removal from our shores I have never seen immigration act so quickly and decisively If you think its a coincidence you simply are seeing the bigger picture. It is not our young people that are degenerating and they are not spoiled but it is those of mature age already sunk down in corruption. Some people at the very top of government need to stop protecting their very corrupt their little pets.
Sucka Free Cayman , I agree with your comment , that’s why I said that Law Enforcement agencies are doing more damage to the Islands than the criminals .
But it is very very strange that he Bullard was removed from the land before the end of the case . The reason just played out in Ebanks verdict .
CNS , I applaud you for not hiding and allowing the public to publicly voice their opinions on this kind of disrespectful disgraceful corruption this is destroying the Islands , I wish that there was more News Media’s like you then we might be able to get rid of these criminals and corruption .
Free Michael Jefferson. No DNA, NO FINGER PRINTS. An INNOCENT man in jail. What is good for Jay is good for Michael. Free Michael Jefferson.
Turn the page
Deport him to Jamaica
No fingerprints, no DNA, just a confession to a policeman. And a jury verdict, too.
I am still astounded the local police were able catch a running toilet!
So Jay knew immediately upon search that it was Bullard’s gun (implying that this was a reasonable item for him to have possessed by virtue of some dangerous criminal occupation he knew about), and didn’t share that or details of that dangerous occupation, and they are both rewarded with freedom? Aren’t “aiding and abetting” and “perjury” crimes punishable in the Cayman Islands? Free to go is he? Our Prosecutions department leaves MUCH to be desired. It’s as though they are mentally unfit for the mantle of responsibility we have put in them…time and time again the bad guys go free. Who is responsible for this goon squad?
Mr Ebanks not going free – pled guilty to holding the .40 calibre ammunition. Read the article – on remand.
Read the last paragraph of the article , that explains why this case went downward , and no one would be charged .
But I think the Law Enforcement agencies are doing more damage to the Islands than the criminals are doing.
Dear Dumb-ass-wanna-be-Cayman-gangstas,
Please for the mercy of my belly-side – STOP hiding these damn guns in da friggin toilet nah!?
That’s the FIRST location the boyz gonna check.
Geesh!
No wonda unna is criminals – no damn sense!
You sound like a criminal Master-Mind
But yet Michael Jefferson was found guilty and they had no evidence…smh
Turn the page
Every time I read about a case of magnitude, there is always some substantial error on behalf of the RCIP…
They had an international narcotics dealer in custody and they set him free…
Lol like that video game. GTAv
Well done to the Jury; and Judge Quinn you got that right: extraordinary error…perhaps that is putting it mild.
What on earth did the DPP think they were doing in bringing the case. They already had him on the ammunition, and without his DNA on the weapon…Next up, getting their clock cleaned when they cannot demonstrate the mother knew Bullard was there and was an illegal, given testimony in tis trial was that he was snuck in after hours by the son.
They thought they had another easy case for sending one more Caymanian to jail. Regardless of whether he was guilty or not.
Ummm – he pled guilty to possessing the ammunition. He was already going to jail – for something he admitted doing.
Hes bailed on the ammunition, it had bullards prints – correct?
Not correct. Earlier CNS report: “On arrival they began searching his bedroom in the presence of his mother, Jeanine Lewis, and found 10 rounds of .40 calibre ammunition, which Ebanks has admitted were his and for which he has already pleaded guilty.”
Ebanks is in jail awaiting sentencing for that offence, not on bail.