A FORMER sales representative of the Cigarette Company of Jamaica is to be tried on December 12 for arson.
Nigel Harris is accused of setting fire to the company's cigarette depot in Port Maria, St. Mary.
Damage to the building was estimated at $17 million.
Harris appeared in the Home Circuit Court this week and his trial was put off because his lawyer was appearing in a murder case in another court.
The Crown, represented by attorneys-at-law Linton Gordon, Carlene McFarlane and Crown Counsel Diahann Gordon-Harrison, is alleging that on August 7, 2001 the building and its contents were completely destroyed by fire. It is being alleged that Harris was the last person to have left the building before the fire started.
Harris was committed to stand trial at the end of a preliminary inquiry in the Port Maria Resident Magistrate's Court. The Crown applied for a change of venue and the case was transferred to the Home Circuit Court.
Harris is being represented by attorney-at-law Valerie Neita- Robertson.
