Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE ST. ANN man whose murder case the United Kingdom Privy Council objected to in 2001 because of the manner in which the DNA tests were conducted, lost his appeal yesterday against his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.
Michael Pringle, 35, labourer, of Mount Ararat was convicted in February 2004 at his second trial in the St. Ann Circuit Court. Justice Zaila McCalla sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended that he should serve 30 years before he was eligible for parole.
The Crown led evidence that on June 10, 1996, Pringle murdered Kevan Davidson, an American woman who was a singer. He later confessed to the murder. The Crown did not present DNA results or rely on them at the second trial to present its case against Pringle. The Crown relied on a confession which a cellmate said Pringle had made that he killed and raped Davidson.
GRISLY MURDER
Pringle was Davidson's neighbour. On the morning of June 10, 1996, Davidson's body was found with the throat cut in a gully about 15 chains from her house.
Yesterday, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Herbert McKenzie and Crown Counsel John Tyme asked the Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Paul Harrison, Justice Karl Harrison and Justice Hazel Harris (acting), not to disturb Pringle's conviction and sentence. The Court of Appeal dismissed Pringle's appeal and ordered that his sentence commence on May 13, 2004.
Pringle was first convicted in October 1998 of capital murder and sentenced to hang. He took the case to the Privy Council, which ruled that the DNA evidence could not be relied on, set aside his conviction and sentence and referred the case back to the Court of Appeal for a determination as to whether he should face a second trial. The Court of Appeal ruled that he should face a second trial and he was convicted of non-capital murder.
