Courts
Crown: Killer ate porridge just before fatal shooting
(CNS): George Orlando Senior (35) fortified himself with a bowl of porridge for breakfast, which he had picked up at McDonald’s, shortly before he shot and killed Divonte Alejandro Hernandez (25) outside Liquor 4 Less on Sound Way, George Town, on the morning of 29 September 2023. Barnaby Jameson KC, who is prosecuting the charge […]
Welcome gets ten years for home invasion
(CNS): Roland Welcome (33) was sentenced Tuesday to a decade behind bars, having been found guilty of a violent home-invasion last year. However, his time in HMP Northward is likely to be much longer as he is also awaiting sentence for a more recent conviction for conspiracy to murder Sven Connor. Welcome failed to appear […]
Sex-offender who molested child dodges serious jail time
(CNS): A local man, who cannot be named because of his connections to the little girl he sexually abused for five years, starting when she was just seven years old, will serve only a few months behind bars, even though on Tuesday he was given a sentence of more than three years. The case against […]
UK judge with military background joins local bench
(CNS): Governor Jane Owen has appointed Justice Emma Peters to the Cayman Islands Grand Court based on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC), which conducted an open recruitment process last summer. The job was advertised locally and internationally and, following a rigorous shortlisting process, an interview panel evaluated five candidates before […]
Watler convicted of murdering Duffell on DNA alone
(CNS): Lindsay Kirk Watler (55) was found guilty of murder on Wednesday by a jury of nine women and three men following a two-week trial. Watler had denied killing George Ian Duffell (51) and continued to do so as the jury read out their verdict when he said, “I didn’t do it.” Duffell was murdered […]
Chilean ATM thieves jailed for 14 months
(CNS): Three Chilean nationals who were charged with theft and money laundering last year were recently convicted and sentenced to 14 months in jail. On Tuesday, 4 February, the court granted the crown’s request for a confiscation order against the ringleader of the gang, as he had played a leading role in the sophisticated crime. […]
50 years in law earns former CJ seat on UK Privy Council
(CNS): Sir Anthony Smellie, a former chief justice of the Cayman Islands, has been appointed to the Privy Council. In a release from the judiciary, Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale congratulated her predecessor, saying it was a fitting recognition of his long and distinguished career as a leading jurist in the Cayman Islands. Sir Anthony’s appointment […]
Poinciana could be adapted to house criminally insane
(CNS): The government is considering how it can adapt the recently opened Poinciana Rehabilitation Centre to house the criminally insane. The centre was not designed to detain individuals who are a danger to society because of their illness. But with nowhere else to house people found not guilty of violent crimes by reason of insanity […]
Jury finds two men guilty of conspiracy to murder
(CNS): Antascio Rankine (30) and Roland Welcome (33) were convicted on Monday of conspiracy to murder Sven Brett Connor (42) following more than two days of jury deliberation. Connor was killed by a gang of men who shot what the crown called a “hail of bullets” through his bedroom window at his home on Fiddlers […]
Lawyers make case for acquittal of men accused of murder
(CNS): Both Antasacio Rankine (30) and Roland Welcome (33) declined to give evidence on their own behalf this week and left it to their lawyers to make the case for acquittal of the murder charges against them. One defence attorney said the crown came “nowhere near” proving its case, and neither man was required to […]
Anonymous witness points finger at Rankine as killer
(CNS): An anonymous witness in the trial of Antascio Rankine (30) and Roland Welcome (30), who are accused of murdering Sven Connor, insisted that they were not mistaken when they saw Rankine involved in a serious altercation with the victim minutes before he was shot dead. Only the judge and the jury could see the […]
