Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
ZEKES
THE DOUBLE murder trial of well known Matthews Lane resident, Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, has been postponed until January 16 next year.
This is as a result of K. Churchill Neita, Q.C, one of Phipps' lawyers, being unavailable to appear because he is appearing in the Kraal murder trial.
Phipps was denied bail on Monday when he appeared in the Home Circuit Court.
Phipps and Garfield Williams, a farmer from St. Thomas, are charged jointly with the murder of Rodney Leroy Farquharson and Dayton Williams, of Bayshore Park, east Kingston. The burnt bodies of the two men were discovered on April 15 in an open lot at Rose Lane, near to Matthews Lane, downtown Kingston.
BAIL APPLICATION
Defence lawyer Lloyd McFarlane, in making the bail application before Miss Justice Gloria Smith, stressed that since Phipps was in custody, people doing business in downtown Kingston had to be relocating their businesses elsewhere because of the increase in theft. He said Phipps was not a flight risk.
In opposing bail, Paula Llewellyn, Senior Deputy of Director of Public Prosecutions, said it was the duty of the Commissioner of Police and the head of the Jamaica Defence Force to bring stability to the country and in particular downtown Kingston. She said as far as she was aware Phipps was a businessman and it was not his function to bring stability to the city. She told the judge that the offences were allegedly committed while Phipps was on bail on another charge.
Phipps is also facing charges for unlawful possession of over $18 million, which was found by police at his upper St. Andrew home on May 21.
